Saturday, December 31, 2011

Resolution


My resolution for 2011 is to wear my wrist watch all day. I can then know Time immediately, even if only a whim. I've been doing this all morning and I kind of like it already. If it works out well the rest of the day, then I'm going to make it my New Year resolution for tomorrow.
I bought a book of poems yesterday that should arrive next week in the mail. The title of the book drew me in, "Still Life" by Alexander Long. Still life happens to be something I have given a lot of thought to in the past. Anyway, one teaser line for you
"If only childhood would tell the wind where to go,
If only it had a home."

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Father Christmas


Don is
really a man for all seasons, but Christmas happens to be the last time I saw him. Eighty-Eight years old, he held the Christmas gathering at his house this year, as most years before. Some of his daughters (4) call him Gramps. Baffling reality. This year they got him a big screen TV for Christmas. While younger family members are attempting to set the set up and surprise him, a snag develops in the connection. Turns out, when he returns, the solution isn't a surprise for him. "Digital to digital" he explains. Pretty clear thinking here, problem solved. Later, in the shank of the evening, he needs to snag a two year old that believes derailing a bathroom door might be in order. "I can't let him do that", he explains to me, "I have to put it back on the rail". So practical too. Moving on to the kitchen, his conversation turns to the need for recycling. This greatest generation, World War II vet, hasn't grown more conservative with age as Freud would have predicted, but younger as years pass. I'm proud to know him!

Zen Wood


I watched a Sixty Minutes segment on the monks of Mount Athos and it was fascinating!
They are Greek Orthodox not Zen, but the video slammed my brain back into place.
"Chop wood-carry water", bolt out of it--
Don't let this cold snap keep you in the cabin with a fever!




Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Not a jet plane


It's getting colder, I've burned the wood, I'm leaving town.










Benton Harbor



This city is going through urban renewal. Two high profile projects, a golf course and art center are already completed. A large percentage of the population fall below the poverty line so these two new projects will be of little use to them. Instead, they are being offered a free ten week course, "Bridges Out of Poverty." This class is designed to prepare residents culturally to join the middle class. "Moving out of culture of poverty requires more than an increase in financial means...and accepting achievement as the driving force in one's life," the course description read. "It will require one to learn and use middle-class language and behaviors." I have always suspected that education is a cultural success route, but this smacks of something entirely different. Is the key to renewal to mimic the middle class?

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Seasons


In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
-William Blake

Reverb


William T. was apt to say, in his later years, when asked if he needed anything, " Just a few kind words, honey". Since he was a man of few words, his meaning had an ending that echoed then on after.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Vote of Confidence



The post office has some good things going for it and one of them is economy of measure. Last week, I used the UPS system to deliver one little envelope, as time was a factor. Formerly, I worked for UPS and one thing I know about them is that nobody leaves until the work is done, so things arrive on time. My response at the price, "Son of a Buck!". Almost $15 to mail one tiny package (4 cds). Choo Wow! It did arrive on time, UPS called, they hauled, so I got what I paid for on time.
Today, I mailed 3 similar packages at the post office for a total of $5. It's Christmas time, but I don't care when they arrive. People need presents after Christmas too. The price was my present to myself.


Monday, December 12, 2011

"Only a Thing"

Joe was a great teacher and sometimes his students would come up to see him at the canoe livery even after they had graduated. One such time, Joe and I, along with two of them, went out in search of a lost canoe. Lost was a relative term in the business. Sooner or later it would be "discovered", but the search also functioned as a mechanism for "Plausible Deniability" and "Purpose" in one brush stroke. Handy tool on many occasions.
On this particular search, both of the students responded like a Greek chorus with one refrain, no matter what the question happened to be, "It's only a thing!" Sometimes, from my vantage point, questions and discussions can be like quadratic equations. It takes some time to figure them out, but by the end of that fun day, I realized one answer to cosmic inquiries is truly, "It's only a thing!"
All of this brings us to another thing. Procrastination has its own downside in spite of the fun that it generates. Many times before we can get one thing done, we have to get another thing out of the way, and still the thing at hand has to be done before we can move on to the next thing.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Pass 'er Buy


For over twenty years, I have passed this house about once a week with the thought that I really want to live here. Once, it was for sale, but I didn't have the money to buy it. This is the mystery. Often it appears to be empty, but not for sale, which baffles me. Now it appears vacant again, but just out there by itself, patiently waiting for the next recycle.



Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Going Postal


The post office announced that it will soon run out of money. One cost cutting measure announced is shutting down half of of the distribution sites and laying off 100,000 employees. As a consequence of these moves, first class mail would then be slower. I like first class mail as it is now and thought of some other ways to save money. Americans in general are impatient, and it might be time to slow some things down. Why do we need Saturday mail? Anybody with a job should be able to make a living working five days a week anyway. First class mail is a bargain so good that it can subsidize junk mail. Why not have junk mail pay its own way? Perhaps a positive spin off of this movement would then be a cleaner environment, more trees, and less junk mail to boot!

Monday, December 05, 2011

Not Saturday


Freezing rain kept this boy home. When the gray dawn finally hit the tree line, confirming my suspicion that moving about would be a mistake, I reserved the greater option, and stayed inside for the day.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Stationary


Rebounder stays home today, but the song remains the same.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Fire Jumper


While phantom camping yesterday, I drove by a section in which last years forest fire jumped the highway. It gave me an eerie feeling, especially when the trees were smaller, although I don't know why.








Monday, November 28, 2011

Phantom Camping


Gauche (a.k.a. Handbag) never suspected. Late in the afternoon, we went camping at Parmalee. He marked his territory every three feet, but there weren't any other campers to contest territory. We removed ourselves in sole possession, to return another day.

Question


Attempting to determine the distance to Enterprise, I used two sources to satisfy my curiosity, a gps and a Google map application. The gps believes it is 912 miles and the G map decided it was 1100 miles. Those readings fall well beyond the pale of a +/- 3% standard deviation. Now, I'm even more curious! Which one of these authorities is correct?
This led me down another path of confusion. For years, I assumed the expression, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" came from Plato's Republic, but I discover that a number of people don't believe it. So... I am still left with, "Who guards the guardians?"



Saturday, November 26, 2011

Astro '95


They arrive, circle, and never leave

Not Rainbow Bend


but another stretch of the main branch.I know you have already guessed:

Friday, November 25, 2011

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Rebounder


.. hurls through the darkness, parked. Yesterday, I took Mike for a ride in Bounder to see another rig I had my eye on. He was impressed. On the way back home, he said, "Take Bounder out on I-75." Right on, I think to myself, a system test! As we are motoring down the expressway, the next request I hear, "Take it up to 70". I'm proud, "Look Mike, the steering wheel isn't even shaking." It appears his mind is focused on other systems. He turns and says, "I'll buy it." The sweet harmony of numbers, I'm blown away, how fortuitous, Sold!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Flight Plans


have been filed for Empire tomorrow. If the runway is open, then the Bounder will be landing.
Customs will be automatic with no paper work being filed.








Ruminating


The train whistle sounds,

coming through town,

as the snow filters in,

with the smoke again

my mind remains

at White Fish Point.






Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Kangaroo Footnote


Perchance yesterday, at Tammy's Used Books, I picked up a copy of Jimmy Buffett's, "A Pirate Looks at Fifty". I was absorbed past the midnight hour. Jimmy has a bag of great ideas of living life to its fullest. He buys seaplanes, sails ships, and sings for a living, amongst other things. When he went to Costa Rica with his family, a lot of time was spent at the mountain waterfall. Colleen sent me some up to date information on the Bounder's where a bouts. The juxtaposition of these two pieces of information was all I needed to take the plunge. Prometheus Bounder!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Tahquamenon Falls

There is a lot to see in the Upper.



Friday, November 11, 2011

Party Line


During the middle of the last century in rural America, the major communication device was a telephone connected to a party line. Often when you picked up the receiver, you would be a party to a conversation already in mid stream. Instant eavesdropping if you will. The proper thing to do would be to quietly hang up and try your own call at a later time. Not very convenient for the communicant.
This week, I exercised a minor coup in the telecommunications force field. The technology now exists to connect older, land line telephones to a black box that works in cellular fashion. So, for $19.95 per month (taxes will be added, I'm sure) a person can engage in real conversations, with a phone, that feels like a phone, and acts like a phone, without the party. If you insisted on being mobile, you could bring the new black box, and the old phone with you in the car, and create your own party in another location.



Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Kangaroo Slip


The contest was so close that I threw in the towel of logic to counter balance the full moon. Nip and tuck, so to speak. My secret plan of living in a truck might not make sense when fuel costs were about four times what they were in my twenties. It would make a perfect hunting cabin, but I don't hunt in my front yard.It appeared to me that it was time to ramp up my learning curve and demolish my aversion to staying in motels. True, it is a lot more conventional, but also leaves a smaller footprint on the budget, as well as the landscape. Propelling myself forward, the plan this week is to go to Taquammenon Falls in the Upper Peninsula, take some pictures, and spend the night in a motel.

Monday, November 07, 2011

Kanga...

Roo... The price dropped unexpectedly, but Michigan has been a buyer's market for some time. There is was...$3,500 for a 1986 Bounder. Now, I was like a fish caught on two lines. Twenty seven foot long, the tires had only 13,000 miles, drive train only 50,000 and a generator. Horns of a dilemma, but it was Sunday and the banks were closed, so the risk factor was limited


Tuesday, November 01, 2011

The journey...


continues. Checked out an old road warrior today. When I asked Joe, the owner of this land shark, the year of the rig, he responded, "Quality doesn't age". This comment came after he let me know what he thought of the current generation. Joe's opening remark, " I'm 80 and have never been caught in a lie, yet" led us to further discussions. I couldn't let him know, it was love at first sight! Pressed, I employed the 25 hour rule to give myself time to think and rethink, and perhaps sleep on it.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Reality Distortion Field


I just finished reading a book about Steve Jobs. It was a pretty good read. I have always been fascinated by the Macintosh computer and this book provided a host of background information about its development. Steve Jobs is likewise fascinating, but for his quirks (i.e. he never bought license plates for his cars) as much as for his vision of quality. Another of his idiosyncratic behaviors was termed "The reality distortion field" when he seemed to discount reality and impose his own version of what he thought might be possible if he pushed hard enough. In some sense, this concept has the ring of truth to me because of the nature of humans to push the envelope of what is possible and accomplish what would have been thought impossible.I'm applying this "reality distortion field" thinking to my shopping for a motor home. One is for sale on my street (the Bounder). The price is $3,800. What a deal, dimes on the dollar! Most of my reality based family is telling me it is a mistake, and I know they are right. The snag is that the upside of irrationality tends to be more exciting than the downside of practicality. Woody Guthrie's autobiography, Bound for Glory, bears consideration here too. Well, of course I'm not in that league, but in the back of my mind rests the thought that, "Bounder" would be a lot of fun and fulfill T.S. Eliot's injunction that old men should be explorers.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Day Away


from the rain...

...when it stops








Monday, October 24, 2011

One Log Left


Week 43 ended in blazes with back to back days of burning brush and punk wood. The brush was the result of storm damage through the years, but the punk wood was pure procrastination on my part. It got dark a lot sooner than I planned, so I had to put the fires out before they could burn themselves away.
Watching fire, and being hypnotized by it, made it appear to me that the human spirit is a lot like fire, though not in words that I can articulate.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Trebuchet


Check out what the folks in Lake Orion are doing to prepare for Halloween.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Quality of One


Not verbatim, but a conversation overheard this week, at a prison recycling program. Viewing computers being gleaned of valuable metals and toxins, the touring environmental scientists asks the warden, "Are there any Apples in there?" The warden responds, "Oh no, not a one! We put them in a special pile so they can be repaired and sold later." Steve Jobs would be proud.












Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Indian Summer


What began as potlatch, seeped into Octoberfest, and continued, "With the slow leakage of time" to Indian Summer. It was perfect in so many ways. Family, beauty, and weather wrapped around week 40 to linger on as a holiday nameless still.








Saturday, October 01, 2011

Octoberfest Prelude


Rolling Red and Gold.


Thursday, September 29, 2011

Agrarian legend


I missed the movie, but from what little I know about it, decided that Urban Legends must be about cities. This made me wonder about a parallel universe that might exist in rural areas. One possibility popped into my mind immediately. When food was dropped on the ground, the obvious first thing the consumer did, before continuing, was to brush off the dirt. Makes sense. If one was a bit reluctant, then came the injunction with the strength a verbal tick. "You have to eat a bushel of dirt before you die!" To me this always implied, "Better get started"
Now this makes me wonder, " Who is keeping track and how do we know when we have finished our share?"



Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Situation Ethics


St. Michael's church, where I go to mass, is situated in a beautiful spot. It is next to the village park which has a river running through it. Walking out on a sunny day can be elevating. The park is also a wireless site, so the park alone has its own draw.
Twice this week, as I was passing in my car, I spotted a county deputy in the church parking lot running what I believe to be a radar trap. This makes me very uneasy, but not for the obvious reason that I might be speeding. I also know, even symbolically, that it isn't the marriage of church and state. So far, I haven't been able to figure out my feeling. Am I being possessive of the church parking lot? In short, I'm baffled, and don't have a clue.


Thursday, September 15, 2011

Phone Booth


Adjusting to the cell phone society has taken me a long time. Generally, I have one about six months and then discontinue the service. Now that I have an iPhone the game has changed. I'm going to take this communication device as a serious candidate to build an organization tool for the cluttered life that I live.
So... what do about my past conditioning that links me to a land line? The idea that when I return home, I need to check and see if someone has left a message. Last weekend, I came up with an expansive concept: Put the cell phone in a phone booth to make it more real as a communication station. The good old days were never this good with cramped phone booths that were standing room only

Friday, September 09, 2011

Cognitive Dissonance


The title has a ring to it, but sounds more complicated then it is actually. I call it Mental Rule Four (MR4), "Don't let the left hand know what the right hand is doing." MR4 gives the mind time to occupy itself when it doesn't know how to solve a problem. Every problem doesn't have an immediate solution. TS's term might be "Distracted from distraction by distraction."
Money is a another example of this dichotomy. It seems to me that in the micro world if a person doesn't manage money, than money manages them. But in the Macro world, a person consumed by money management loses his way entirely.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

"Trees Pressed Thin"



One of my favorite blogs is written by a lady in North Port who owns a book store. ( booksinnorthport.blogspot.com/ In the discussion, within this blog last winter, she
quoted an author about other outcomes for books. It rolled around my brain
this whole time, but I couldn't reprint it because I didn't know the authors name. Well..
I finally found it after about a four hour search! Never have been that good at the search
portion of research. I hope you enjoy it. “Growth Rings,” by Benjamin Busch.
"Reflections on parents and their books and writings, along with the author’s time spent in the woods, along a stream, as well as his sense of books as “trees pressed thin,” his love for books as objects, cast a spell over me as I read.

The writer will die, the reader will die, and the mice will come for the papers they left in boxes. We will all be covered with a blank white sheet. But there will be a shelf somewhere where the book will survive. Someone will walk into the empty room, blow the gathered dust from it, sit, and begin reading in the light of a window. The book will change what they see outside. Then the reader will consider the placement of the book and the book will remain, again, where it is placed."


Monday, August 22, 2011

Woodward Avenue


Last week, I boiled a big pot of potatoes and bought a Glen's whole cooked chicken. In a smug little way, I believed I was on the top of the food pyramid for the whole next week, nutrition wise. After a week, I advanced a similar notion that doing dishes was wise. So I commenced to clean out the refrigerator, but the stash in the icebox had crashed, and with it my complacency. The dish of potatoes was half full of water and the bowl of chicken contained only skin. Another food mystery had developed in my life. No time to resolve these questions as there is food at Ted's and the opportunity to drive on Woodward Avenue.






Monday, August 08, 2011

Operating Systems



"Burn the ships," I exclaimed, echoing the Norman invaders of England, when I disconnected my internet last month. How was I to know entropy had me by the throat in my audio, video, internet hobby?

My disk drives were breaking down, and to replace them would be very expensive. This along with the knowledge that these would be new components integrated into an ancient system.

The sum of the parts added up to more than the whole. Economy of measure was leading me to a door that I did not want to open. The only handle on this situation was changing my bias of long standing, taking a sling shot ride on the learning curve, and keeping my mind open.

As a thirty year Mac enthusiast, I write this next line as though it were a whisper. To burn light scribe cd labels and collect music videos, I have added system seven to the tool kit. Foolish and effective are two additional feelings for this new method of operation.


Monday, August 01, 2011

Flashback


On the farm, in the attic, was a trunk filled with memories. As kids, we would search through it to find costumes for Halloween. Some fantastic treasures laid buried there. One item, which I never paid much attention too, was a three inch by eight inch, hard cover ledger.

This last, non-camping weekend, I picked the ledger up from my sister Shannon, and got the opportunity to look through it. The first entry was Port Sanilac, Michigan, 1869.

In that year, William T. Quinlan paid a daily rate of $2.50 for two men and a horse. Inflation has kicked the rates up a bit, but perhaps "Two Men and a Truck" have roots in the past.

Monday, July 25, 2011

One Day it Happened



In week 17, or as I am wont to say, Stardate 2011.17, the river rose and knocked out my water heater, but not my furnace. I was a lucky cat in more ways than one. One of the ways (let me count the ways, as Shakespeare would say) that fortune smiled on me was that I still had hot water in the cabin to take showers. No sweat!

Boiling water to do dishes was a pain (here I have to admit that I didn’t do them everyday), but they can pile up until nature forces your hand.

So today we do the reversal. Hot water in the main house, but no water in the cabin.

Not total victory, but today has me grinning from ear to ear!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

It Happened One Night


In 1934, It Happened One Night was filmed starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. I chanced upon the movie late one night, years ago on television. The last half was all I was able to see, but it stayed in my mind since that time. The writers for this movie did a fantastic job of telling their story around the strict censorship of the time. In fact, they

did so well writing between the lines, that the challenge of censorship raised the movie to a new level. The two stars woke up in a haystack and the dialogue that followed was so funny that it stayed with me years.

I was fortunate enough to review the movie last week on a dvd. The humorous scenes, that were the core of the movie, were totally removed. The writing finesse that happened one night was clipped during the day, when censorship casts but a light shadow.


Saturday, July 09, 2011

Calligraphy Day One

Yesterday, I pulled the plug on my cable tv, phone, and internet. The ladies at Charter never batted an eye for I am a regular guy and they know the routine. Upon returning home from the neighboring town, I quickly retrieved my new calligraphy kit, along with some parchment paper that I was quite anxious to use.

The next phase of my plan was to begin practicing the desired art by writing my daughters each a letter on this ancient paper. Right then and there, the plan fell apart. I couldn't figure out how to load the ink into this mighty fine pen! To save face, I took my fountain pen and attempted slow writing. I mailed the letters with the full knowledge that I have a lot to learn.


Thursday, July 07, 2011

Summer Rhythm

For weeks, it has been too close to call, but that has changed utterly! One solid week of temperatures over sixty compel me to shout out, summer is here! Want more proof ?
The tourists from the flatlands of lower Michigan have arrived, bringing with them their alternate sense of rhythm. The roadways now have the appearance of a game of lightning chess, as motorists scurry for favorable positions.
These changes are my cue it's time to learn calligraphy.


Saturday, July 02, 2011

Time & Place

The potlatch ceremony has been spontaneous in our family for years. This year marks a change.
Situation and Terrain are set for week 40 in Alabama. No straight jacket here with these liberal parameters.
The following song may appear to be a discordant element or stitched on as an after thought, but that isn't the case. Instead, it is random carried to a particular place and time where all chance is partly accident. In short, it just seemed the right time to listen.

Lawn Mow Lightning

Worked overtime cutting my lawn today. I really don't know why it made me think of trains and flowers. Perhaps it was because I procrastinated so long, and idle thoughts have a way of over riding practical considerations.




Monday, June 27, 2011

Forecast Run Amuck

The rain didn't appear, so I filled in from last week.


Thursday, June 23, 2011

Vacuum

Seven years of NCIS flashed to completion yesterday. I miss it already.

Afternoon

in June accompanied by 901's

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Footnote

To Father's Day...

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Senior Moments


This week, for the first time, I was in close proximity to a senior "Coffee Clutch". I expected to hear tales of times lost, and missed opportunity. Instead, the group leader spoke of the wisdom of legalizing marijuana and taxing it.
Personally, I can't stand smoke in my lungs. I prefer beer straight to the stomach, feeling bad the next day, and then perhaps, extra sleep for a cushion.
The salient statistic that has registered with me in the last two years is over six thousand Mexicans have died in drug wars. More collateral damage than our organized military campaigns. Fair is fair, choose your poison, if you're so willing, and pay the price. I have paid my fair share of the "alcohol tax", it's time to share all tax burdens of abuse.


Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Laundry


Not a lot of sun, but the wind filled in...