Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #122: Record Temperatures, Dogs In Golf Carts, Nice Parking, etc.

1. Well, that escalated quickly. We graduated from a typical Cape Cod spring, meaning low 50s with loads of clouds, fog, and drizzle. In a snap, it was record-high temperatures. We hit right around 80 degrees with low humidity and tons of sun. I had a great time going for a morning walk in the perfect weather. I enjoyed it so much that I created a short video of my walking route. Granted, the record highs didn’t last. We dropped to more normal, but still nice, temperatures in the low to mid 60s. It was perfect for mid to late May. Much like the first snow of the season, the first hot day of the season is fun, but as it becomes more common, it gets less appealing. To me, perfect weather is low humidity, partly cloudy, temperatures in the low to mid 70s. If I could bottle that, I would. Now it is the race to see how long it is until I have to put in my air conditioner. Last year, it was early, maybe the third week of June. I am hoping to hold off until after the 4th of July, as I typically do, but I can’t control the weather.


2. The sirens wailed as I walked to my car one morning this week. I was headed to work. I hear sirens almost daily, police and fire. I see the vehicles go by the house every so often. On this day, one fire truck flew by, then another. I had to wait as a third flew by. I wondered where they were headed. It didn’t take long to find out. After not even a minute of driving, I saw the huge plumes of black smoke billowing up from the trees. It wasn’t a forest fire, though. Near the end of the road I live on, I saw the fire trucks congregated. There it was. A shed, a boat that was probably 20-feet long, and a back fence were engulfed in flames. The next-door neighbor was dousing their side of the fence with a hose to try to hold off the fire. Cars slowed but didn’t stop. I wondered all day about the fate of that house. On the way home in the evening, I slowed down by that house. The fence looked like it survived. The shed had a massive hole in its roof. I saw the front half of the boat, but I don’t know if the back end was a loss. Thankfully, the house looked fine, and I can only assume all of the people were okay. Cheers to the Yarmouth Fire Department for getting there so fast and getting the fire out.


3. Aging is a weird thing. It’s like mentally I feel like I am still 18, but that was 30 years ago. Certain songs or foods can immediately bring my mind back to how I felt as a teenager. Even when I look in the mirror, I don’t feel like I have aged badly. Yes, I have more gray than I’d like, but I have a full head of hair. Between 40-53% of men in their 40s are going bald, or are bald. That jumps to 50-85% of men in their 50s. Granted, I could start going bald in 11 years and still be in my 50s, but I have good genes. Physically, though, is where the differences are piling up. It wasn’t when I turned 40 that things started changing. It was actually after turning 42 in 2019. I had a bad hip injury from running, and also battled Covid and lived through it like we all did. Those things all seemed to turn the tide in a way I haven’t been able to come back from. I do well for a few months and lose 10-15 pounds, but then my energy and willpower just get sapped, and I fall off. I think recognizing it is a benefit, though. Every new day, you can try again to get it right. Is that a stricter diet? Lowering my caffeine intake? Reducing my workload so I can go to the gym more? A little of all of them? I have no idea. All I know is that, going back to those good genes, I am likely going to be lucky enough to reach my 90s, as many in my family tree have. That means I have 40-something years left. I can either keep working hard and have more healthy years ahead. Or I can just give up and have decades of a downhill trend. The choice is mine.


4. The heat wave in May in New England broke in spectacular fashion. It was as hot as 88 degrees with a real feel of 101. I decided to make the most of it by going for a walk in the afternoon when I got out of work. I was on the bike trail. It was not as bad in the shade, not very humid. I saw in the sky the thunderclouds billowing above the trees. I knew it wasn’t long until the rains would arrive. I walked 3.5 miles, so it took me an hour. When I parked my car at the bike trail, my car’s thermometer read 84 degrees. When I got back an hour later, it was 74. Dropping 10 degrees in an hour is pretty wild. In fact, the longer I walked, the more I could actually feel the heat breaking. It took a couple of hours, but the heavy rain and a few thunderstorms arrived. It was the ultimate example of ‘if you don’t like the weather in New England, just wait 5 minutes.’ We went from a real feel of 101 one day to low temperatures dropping into the upper 40s the next night. It feels like it might be a wacky, unpredictable summer weather-wise.


5. I don’t know what to say. I guess wild animals trust me. That is my thought process after this week. I was out for a run when I was passing a golf course and noticed a pair of cute little chipmunks running and playing near an open gate. One was lagging behind, and I got the sense that it might end up coming around the corner of the gate when I was walking by. Instinctively, I grabbed my phone in the hopes of getting a photo of one of them. The curious chipmunk not only came out from the fence, but it literally walked right up and sniffed my sneakers. I was able to get a few seconds of video of this tiny chipmunk by my feet before it ran off with its friend. Now, couple this with the foxes last week that seemed all too comfortable with me hanging around. Then go back a couple of years to a little bunny that wandered out from the bushes at a beach and literally climbed on my shoe and tried to eat my laces. I’m not saying I can go sit under a tree, and birds are going to land on my shoulders like pets, but I’ve had more wild animals get close to me recently than I’d expect. Soon, I will have amassed an army of creatures. Too bad it’s all bunnies, chipmunks, and baby foxes.



6. One day each week, I either wait with my youngest niece, Sylvie, for the bus or go with her to get dropped off at school. I look forward to it every time. She is so sweet and kind and always looks to give me something of hers. I have been finding new ways to ‘forget’ and leave them behind. Usually, when she gets dropped off, I get out of the back of the van and move up front, so her mom doesn’t feel like she is a taxi driver. Sylvie has explained to me before how to close the sliding side door properly. You tug the handle once, and it automatically slides closed. As she was getting out, she did that, and I couldn’t stop the door. Only when there were a few inches to go did the door stop. Then it began setting off a beeping to warn you that the door was open. We had to drive to a parking spot so I could get the door closed once the automatic function was turned off. I laughed because I said Sylvie told me how to do it right, but obviously, I am old, and technology will now be my enemy, I guess.


7. My Fitbit has a few times it will buzz to let me know of achievements. They usually have to do with heart rate zones. It also buzzes when I hit 150 exercise minutes per week, or 10,000 steps in a day. Whenever I hit those milestones, it’s a good feeling that I am being active and healthy. The only problem is that Fitbit has a tendency to track steps using arm swinging motions as much as actual foot movement. This came through one day this week when I was sitting at my desk recording my podcast, and my Fitbit started buzzing. I looked and saw I had passed 10,000 steps. But how? I mean, I was pretty close to 10K anyway, so it wasn’t a major glitch like I magically got 10K steps while sitting. No, I think I was gesturing too demonstratively with my hands while recording, and the Fitbit took that as steps. Despite sitting still, I somehow kept adding steps. I guess now I know that if I’m close to 10K but don’t feel like going for a walk, and can just wiggle my arm a whole bunch and get there anyway.


8. I never know what interesting things I am going to see when out for a walk/run. At this point, there really isn’t anything that could shock me. For example, one day this week, I went walking to a little neighborhood located right on Bass River near me. It’s one of those semi-private neighborhoods, not quite gated, with a sign at the entrance with some fancy name to it. This neighborhood is very relaxed; the only vehicles driving through it tend to be those who live there. Those who do live there venture around the roads not in their cars or trucks, but many of them drive golf carts. It is pretty unique. I was walking through the neighborhood and saw a golf cart coming around a corner. It was driven by a girl who couldn’t have been more than eleven. Her passenger was an adorable golden retriever. Just a young girl, her dog, and a golf cart. I just smiled and thought it was par for the course as far as things I see on my walks. Yes, the pun was intended.

Like this, but even cuter

9. Sometimes the stereotype fits. I drove to the Three Sisters Lighthouses in Eastham. There is a small dirt parking lot that can only fit a handful of cars. I pull in. There is a car parked normally, and next to it, some jerk parked diagonally, taking up 2 spaces. When there are dozens of spots, and you park diagonally, you’re a jerk, but it’s not as egregious. When there are like 5 spots, and you do it, you’re an inconsiderate prick. I looked at the New York license plate. My first thought was ‘typical New Yorker.’ I know not all people from New York are pricks, but you do see a lot of them. This jackass wasn’t even at the lighthouses. I am pretty sure he parked there and walked the ¼ mile down to Nauset Light Beach so he wouldn’t have to pay. I got some photos and videos, and when walking back to my car, I saw this idiot and his equally stupid wife getting into the car. A guy had to wait for this moron to back out and leave before he could pull in. Of course, the smug jerk couldn’t even look at any of us watching him leave. It took all of my composure not to just yell at him. The person pulling in asked if I could believe that guy. Needing to vent my anger, I said the guy was a ‘f*cking prick.’ Then I saw his young son getting out of the truck. I quickly apologized for my language, but he was cool. We laughed, and I left. Moral of the story: Whether you’re from New York, Massachusetts, or anywhere, just don’t be a jerk. It’s really not that hard...for most people.


10. For 5 years, I had been running my Facebook business/fan page entirely dedicated to my podcast. I finally realized recently that I was selling myself short. I spend so much time creating that it’s basically a second full-time job. One that I get paid considerably less for currently, but I’m working on that. The fact that I was only promoting my podcast on that page when I also have books, blogs, videos, photos, and film projects, was definitely downplaying all of the hard work I do. This week, I chose to revamp that page from being only about my podcast to everything I do. Fittingly, I renamed it The World of Christopher Setterlund. My plan is to post several times a day there, featuring not only current things I’ve finished, but also shining a light on some of my archived projects. I have a tendency to finish something, share it a few times, and relegate it to a metaphorical box in the back of my closet. I need to promote older stuff much more. The fact that I literally have thousands of pieces of content in various forms that I can pull from means that my back catalog feels totally fresh again. This will be a fun new way to share all of my creative work.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #66: Dream Chasing, Found Money, Lost Nerve, etc.

1. There are loads of famous quotes about chasing your dreams. The gist of them all is to keep pursuing them if you truly want them. My dream has been the same, to become successful in a field using creativity rather than simple manual labor. It has evolved over time. Writing, content creation, and photography are all a part of my dream. Now it has evolved into acting, whether on camera or voice acting. To do it though, you need to audition or at least apply for potential roles. Maybe you get the part, maybe you don’t, but you definitely won’t if you don’t apply. It’s better to apply, get a part, and have to figure out how to make it fit into your schedule, rather than worry about how it will fit into your schedule and not even bothering to try.

2. It is mating season for animals. Knowing this made a lot of things from the past weekend make sense. On a run I came across 3 turkeys standing in the road. The male had his tail feathers spread wide while a pair of females gawked at him. The funniest one though was running past an osprey nest on a pole. I found it odd that 1 osprey was seated in the nest and another flew down and literally landed standing on the other’s back. I thought it was weird until someone at work mentioned it being mating season. Suddenly, that awkward landing by the osprey made sense. They just needed some romantic music.

3. The older I get, the more I find myself living by the credo ‘say yes to whatever and figure it out later.’ Meaning if an opportunity you want comes along you accept it and figure out how to do it, or fit it into your life later. Being that I am trying to get some more acting gigs I have recently put that credo into action. I auditioned for a role in a movie set to film beginning at the end of May. If I get it I might need to put in for serious time off from work on relatively short notice. However, you never know what opportunity might be the one that changes your life. It’s a risk that needs to be taken sometimes. We’ll see what the results are.

4. Creating an audition tape is a unique experience. For the film I mentioned above I had to give some basic info about myself and also answer questions specific to the role I am trying out for. I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly the recording went. Granted, I was able to edit out some long pauses and looking at the questions on my phone but that’s beside the point. Recording tons of videos and podcasts along with doing lots of speaking events, has made public speaking, or at least describing myself to strangers, much easier. I’m not saying that it means I nailed the audition and should get a call back soon. I’m just saying that I’m a way better public speaker than the shy, nervous, introvert I was growing up could ever have imagined.

5. I was at the grocery store one night this week. It was a standard trip until I got the self-checkout. It was then that I realized I’d left my wallet in the car. Part of me wished that I had actually loaded my debit card into my Apple Wallet after months of deliberating. Sadly I had to alert an employee. I had to let them know I was running to my car to get my wallet and that I wasn’t just ditching a full bag of groceries like some loser. After I paid and was leaving I thanked the employee for understanding. Their reaction was one that felt like they wanted to laugh but didn’t want to get in trouble. I still haven’t set up my Apple Wallet by the way.

6. In more money fun I mentioned a while back that I paid off a credit card I had maxed out years ago. I got it when I was desperate for extra money and it has an extraordinary interest rate. I wanted to keep the account open as it’s supposedly better for your credit score. However after getting slapped with a $99 annual fee I decided enough was enough. I have no intention of ever using the card again so I reached out to cancel the account permanently. I’m all for keeping my credit score up but I’m not willing to just throw money at this company like an idiot. I did that for years just paying the card off.

7. Located within sight of the parking lot at Chatham’s Lighthouse Beach is a rustic shack that you’d think has been there forever. The Occupy Chatham shack is 1/3 mile hike across the sand. It’s only been there since 2015. It’s a fun photo op, especially when the weather is good. I went this week with my buddy Steve and even though it was cloudy there were still great photos to be had. One photo op I passed on though was the litany of dead eiders on the way out. We counted 3 of the black and white ducks dead on the walk. I’m sure if we’d have kept walking we’d have found more but that was enough sadness for a quick trip.

8. From the ‘Almost Disaster’ files: I switched car insurance a few months ago. I ended up saving about $400 a year on the new policy. Afterward, I had gotten several letters from the former insurance company. I piled them and some other junk mail on a shelf. The time came when I needed to get rid of all of that junk. I started tearing up all of the letters. The ones from my old insurance company were all about life insurance, or so I thought. So I’m ripping these all to shreds but the final one I had a little trouble tearing. Luckily I pulled the contents out to see what it was and to my surprise there was a reimbursement check. It wasn’t a ton, like $50, but still I almost ripped up free money.

9. I typically don’t have any trouble sleeping. However every so often, maybe once every other month, I have a night where I wake up and am instantly wide awake. This happened this week and it was even less fun because I had an early wake up for a photo trip I was going on. The irony was that my mind was wide awake as I started seeing the potential photos I could take the next morning. It took a good hour but finally I did fall back to sleep.

10. Speaking of that photo trip. I joined my buddy Steve as he went to begin opening up his family’s cottage on the Gurnet which is a private seaside peninsula that is in the towns of Duxbury and Plymouth in Massachusetts. I love going there because there is a historic lighthouse that I can get up close photos of. On this trip there was a man and a woman doing some sort of cleaning inside the lighthouse. The front door was open and everything. I hung around a bit trying to be out of the way but polite. My thought was if I was there long enough and was friendly, they might ask me if I wanted to check out the interior of the lighthouse. Sadly this didn’t happen, but the photos were still great.

11. A favorite part of these Gurnet trips is stopping at Gunther Tooties for a tasty bagel and flavored cream cheese. There are six locations in the southeastern part of Massachusetts. I lean toward the sweet flavors like cinnamon, French toast, and honey cream cheese. They do, however, have more savory offerings. If you enjoy bagels and cream cheese, definitely check them out.

12. From the ‘Of Course’ files. Steve and I went on a quest to get out to this recreation area in a village named Humarock. It’s a part of Scituate. Anyway, there is a cool tower out there that I believe is one of the observation towers built during World War II. It seemed like everything was good to go as we followed the GPS out to the recreation area. Of course it couldn’t be that easy. Yes, there was a recreation area. The problem was that it was on Air Force property and gated. No chance of sneaking in for a few photos of the tower unless I wanted to be immediately cuffed and hauled away.

13. We headed out to get some photos of the newly renovated Scituate Lighthouse. Many years ago I had walked to the end of the nearby breakwater, scaled a tower, and taken a great panoramic photo of the lighthouse and coastline. My mind was set on doing that again. We walked all the way out and I got to the tower. About halfway up the ladder, I froze. Suddenly, the tower felt like it was 100 feet tall. The howling wind didn’t help my confidence. I climbed down and then felt ashamed so I started climbing again. A second time I got halfway up and froze. I don’t know if my brain sensed trouble could be ahead if I kept climbing but this time I climbed back down and gave up. Better to get a photo safely from the ground than get blown off the top of the tower. 

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Bassett's Wild Animal Farm, Brewster

Bassett's Wild Animal Farm

     In today’s technologically-driven world, the younger generation has access to almost anything they could want to view at the tips of their fingers. Video games, on-demand movies, and television, virtual reality, stimulating one’s senses comes easy in the 21^st century. In the decades of the past entertainment was far different for those growing up on Cape Cod. For nearly fifty years the Cape Cod Mall has been a popular hangout spot, the Cape Cod Baseball League has consistently provided family-friendly fun for a century, and miniature golf, bowling, and more have been go-to’s for kids and families. However, once upon a time there was another outlet for family entertainment located in a rural wooded area near Route 6A in Brewster. It was where kids could see creatures both familiar and new to them many in a hands-on way. This was not a zoo, it was an animal farm. It was Bassett’s Wild Animal Farm.

     The idea of the wild animal farm, similar in theory to a petting zoo, on Cape Cod was the brainchild of Harry ‘Bud’ Bassett. Bassett was born and raised in Brewster, a part of the Brewster Bassett family lineage. From an early age, he was a lover of animals and the environment. After fighting in World War II and working in the private sector as part of Cape & Vineyard Electric Co. until he was in his early thirties Bassett decided to act on his love of animals, as well as his large tract of land on Tubman Road in Brewster. In 1959 Bud, along with his wife Olivia, began dreaming up an animal farm after Olivia gave him a pair of deer as a birthday present.

     Bassett would purchase more land to the south of his farm to accommodate more animals. He would include creatures familiar to Cape Codders like rabbits, raccoons, Canadian geese, skunks, and more. The true appeal of the endeavor would be those animals not native to the peninsula. Bassett would purchase those creatures from reputable dealers at game farms in the south. He would prove his love of animals by selling those that did not naturally hibernate during winter to southern farms in the fall and purchasing the animals again in the spring.

A postcard for Bassett's(Sturgis Library)

     

     Initially known as Bassett’s Game Farm it would have its grand opening on May 2, 1959. It cost 50 cents for adults and 30 cents for children to enjoy the sights of the familiar and unfamiliar animals nestled in the peaceful pine forest. It was a much more fulfilling experience for people to see these animals in a natural environment rather than a city zoo. The pony rides, hayrides, petting zoo, and more attracted throngs of families to the twenty-acre farm. The venture was a success and by 1962 there were more than fifty species of animals at the-now Bassett’s Wild Animal Farm. As his farm grew in popularity Bassett added llamas and a black bear among other creatures. It would become a staple of summer family outings and school trips as the 1960s wore on.

     

     In the 1970’s a leopard, mountain lion, several coatimundi, and a few Patagonian cavies became part of the farm. In 1979 after nearly twenty years of sharing his love of animals with Cape Codders, visitors, and their families Bud Bassett decided it was time to sell and retire. He found a buyer in Gail and Donald Smithson who were looking for a place to begin an Appaloosa horse breeding farm. Initially, the Smithsons were not going to continue on with Bassett’s Wild Animal Farm, that was until the grounds were being toured and Gail fell in love with the animals there. She kept the attraction going, simply adding her Appaloosa horses to the mix. Bud Bassett moved to Mariaville, Maine after selling his farm.

     Gail Smithson did not take the legacy of Bassett’s lightly. During her first few years, she did extensive repairs and renovations trying to make the farm as impressive to those perhaps seeing it for the first time. She improved the cages some of the animals were kept in and added Indian zebus, a mountain lion, and an African lion for visitors to gaze upon. Smithson also integrated her horses into the farm as part of the pony rides and hayrides. In 1994 a Bengal tiger cub named Okemo was brought in to be a part of the popular attraction. Although Bassett’s Wild Animal Farm continued to be widely patronized by families and school field trips an incident involving that Bengal tiger would spell the end of the line.

One of my own personal visits to Bassett's Wild Animal Farm. 1982

     

     In May 2000 a fourteen-year-old employee at the farm was bitten by the tiger on her right calf after entering the cage to feed the 500-pound animal not knowing the trap door was open. Concerns from the federal licensing agency which oversaw all animal parks were two-fold, whether the animal was rabid, and whether the girl had the appropriate paperwork to even be employed there. In the years leading up to the incident, there had been minor protests about the captivity of the animals, most notably by local artist Malcolm Wells in 1996, this incident with a large cat was too much to ignore. Bassett’s Wild Animal Farm closed in 2002.

    

     Bud Bassett, despite spending his remaining years in Maine and Florida, continued contributing to the Cape in other ways. Before his passing in 2010, he and his wife Olivia donated a one-and-a-quarter acre chunk of land along Slough Road to the Brewster Conservation Trust. The main parcel of Bassett’s Wild Animal Farm along Tubman Road is seeing a second life as well. In 2014 an affordable housing project through Habitat for Humanity was approved with 13.9 acres of land being used for fourteen homes ranging from two to four bedrooms and being ready for living in 2021. The remaining land would be sold back to the town of Brewster.

     Though it has been closed for nearly twenty years many residents and visitors to Cape Cod have fond memories of wandering the seemingly endless maze of animals, some dangerous, some not, and feeling so far away from the typical Cape surroundings. Because of those memories Bud and Olivia Bassett’s showcase for their love of animals will never be forgotten.

Be sure to check out my website: Christopher Setterlund.com

My 5th book, Cape Cod Nights, is on sale at Amazon.com and through Arcadia Publishing