Nature Ubiquitous: plnats and other things that sprout

... as poetry, prose, music, photograph and video and cartoon, concerning everything under the sun (and clouds),like weather, art and science, birds (of course), mythology, whimsy, food preparation ... And, if you've read a book, feel free to mention it, or even discuss it.

Father's Day: Feh! A marketing scheme. But the Solstice ... well, that's something else, isn't it? I'd get out there and blow my wooden flute, but I lost it over forty years ago. Dropped it while on a cable car and watched it roll down the hill, then returned to the teeming crash pad on Ashbury to discover that the girl I'd fallen into love with from afar had fallen for the faux guru with an actual metal flute. Alas.

Out of which past I present this, from The Astrology of Personality: A Reinterpretation of Astrological Concepts and Ideals in Terms of Contemporary Psychology and Philosophy, by Dane Rudhyar. The first Sabian degree of Cancer (a metaphor for those born on this day, and those experiencing it):

SAILOR READY TO HOIST A NEW FLAG TO REPLACE THE OLD ONE

The nascent desire to align oneself with a larger and more significant life trend. Compelling decision. Repolarization.

A great first day of summer morning. Just whisps of clouds in an otherwise blue sky. A coolish breeze though it will get very warm today. I'm not big on hot weather but I really enjoy the feeling of summer. All the fine days of my youth come flooding into my imagination. All the hours spent on the golf course when I could have been at something more useful. It was great to shed that Jacketshirtandtie and get out there on the road. I cannot paint what then I was in the summer of 1966. Who can?

Someone has filled in the mud holes in the path thru the wood & I was able to drive my golf-cart into the deep woods area. All signs of civilization disappeared, what I heard was frogs from the muddy little creek, and birds, calling to each other, & the drilling sound of a busy woodpecker.
These are not virgin forest. they have been farmed, but the soil is too thin, but the quarry hasn't dug here because the overburden is still too heavy.

There is something about the smell of a forest in full summer. It is a green smell, of leaves, ferns, moss and fallen trees and branches slowly rotting. It is both decay and regeneration as the forest floor is thick with new seedlings that have sprouted and begun their battle for a place in the sun.
Deer live here and coyotes, rabbits, groundhogs, coons, possums. They hear me coming & make themselves scarce. I am the intruder in this place so busily growing & I had better leave so everything can resume its businrss.

Solstice... my favorite and yet saddest day of the year. Being a child of the sun, astrologically, this is my day. And finally, Sol has arrived on the high desert to warm me and caress my cheeks. (This has been the longest winter of my life. Snow started to fly October 3rd last year and we had our last bit last week on June 15th. Virtually no Spring to speak of up here. Damn El Niño) Sadness because the days from here will become shorter, minutely, every day.

BUT! 70 today and 80s tomorrow and Wednesday. I won't speculate beyond that.

Tani,

"Only those within whose own consciousness the sun rise and set, the leaves burgeon and wither, can be said to be aware of what living is."
~Joseph Wood Krutch

Seek him out and read him. A great naturalist.

And a good biography of Samuel Johnson (1944). Three great naturalists: Louis Halle, Charleton Ogburn and of course JWC.

Add Donald Peattie onto that list. His almanac of western trees is stellar.

Glad you dropped in, Tani, even if you're sad. (For some reason I feel sad today too; maybe that young nymph in the Haight who spurned me for the flute-playing phony.)

And welcome to our cocoon, eugene. I see we share Sketches from a Hunter's Album and The Snow Leopard, that Farley Mowat is one of your favorites, and that you're from Colorado! Between Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, California, and Or-e-gun, there has been a great gap in our roster of naturalists. Hopefully you'll return with tales of streams, flora and fauna, and, eventually, monstrous snowstorms.

Peter: Did you mean eugene's JWK? If not, who the hell is JWC?

Much appreciated CE52. And your Rx for Ring Lardner takes me back to Scribners, late 20's early 30's with Maxwell Perkins and the greats, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Rawlings, Wolfe, ... Glad to be aboard this train, headed for parts unknown.

In my haste I typed JWC instead of JWK - Joseph Wood Krutch. So many great naturalists: Loren Eiseley, John McFee, Judge John Voelker, just too name a few.
Hey P. I think I've nosed out that cat with the flute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8JRS3eY2kg
One of my favorite summer songs with one of my favorite lines;
'Some are building monuments/Others jotting down notes.'
Another version by the old hippies Brewer & Shipley:
http://www.brewerandshipley.com/Songs/Covered/TheMightyQuinn.htm

eugenegant, oooh, you live in Tattered Cover land! I have a sister in Loveland and another in Aspen. One winter I visited and they took me up to some place in the mountains on some kind of sleigh ride. City kid that I am, I don't think I appreciated it they way they expected!:-) When they ask what I want to do, I say "Let's go to Tattered Cover".

I sure like the JWK quote on your profile about vandalism and development, though. Nice to meet you.

LC,
And I, you. Your not alone in your plight to read, - how stories and authors are intertwined to a thread that seems to keeps unraveling, exposing so much more fo life, self-discovery and understanding.

Yes, TC is such a great book store. I've been able to meet some of my favorite authors at readings and book signings...Barry Lopez, Ivan Doig, Jim Harrison, Bill Kittredge, Rick Bass, Doug Peacock, Gretel Erhlich, ...

I see you read Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain and it is on your favorite's list. I have a nice hardback edition (with dustjacket) on my shelf, waiting for me to take it down and open the pages. After hearing Bill Kittredge explain how this book blew him away when he was young, I thought I better get a copy and read it. Still getting 'around' to it. =)
~S

Thank you Steven and Peter for the suggestions. Hmmm, which one to start with?

25 years ago (omg I am feeling old) I lived in the Denver metro area (ugh) but loved the climate and the mountains and the daily light shows in the foothills from our deck. Some old family friends have a beautiful place in Twin Lakes (9,000 ft elevation) outside of Leadville. The trip over Independence Pass to Aspen that I took solo seven years ago in late August was exquisite. However, I almost passed out on one of the switchbacks near the top when I got out to take pictures. I wasn't so sure at that time if the going solo was such a good thing. But I made it over and then on the way back I met some really nice Native American Firefighters (I think I mentioned them on another thread) on their way home from fighting the Biscuit fire here in Oregon.

Piero, dear... That silly nymph was clueless. I saw that you have submitted Digging Deeper, when can we expect it to show up on Amazon? I am looking forward to it. And how about the Italiano version of I Think, Therefore Who Am I? I think the last I saw you mentioned the Italians were driving you crazy.

re Solstice

I live in Florida where we have "Summer" weather all year round.

An interesting fact about the Winter Solstice: the ancient passage tombs throughout Europe have an opening at the beginning of the passage which ensures that the sun, on the Winter Solstice, shines a beam right back to the large bowl that contained cremated ashes of many people. Since the days begin to get longer from then on, one wonders if these pre-Christian believed the Resurrection of the body.

I was in one at Newgrange, Ireland - the best preserved one in Europe - and had an awesome feeling that must be like seeing the pyramids of Egypt for the first time or, better, entering one. Tut, roll over!

Ah jeez, Tani, I could say they were driving me nuts, but they're probably just being Italian.

Apropos the Italians and The Girl Who Fell for the Flautist (Stig Whasisname is still working on that one): among the many books I began to write and put aside was one about a woman I once knew who I thought was driving me crazy, and then I realized it was my thinking about her that was doing it. I called it: Women Will Drive Yourself Crazy.

;-) So when DD is published, do we go back to calling you Peter?

LOVE the Ubiquitous, Piero.

Who knows when "Digging Deeper" will come out, or what people will be calling me when it does? Thanks on the Ubiquitous, though, and headbands off to Eugene (I just got back from a bike ride) for his perspicacity in recognizing that the essence of our thread is the unraveling; and to Lisa, for being the intrepid traveler that she is, whether via bicycle, boat, or sleigh.

On a completely different subject, sort of, it occurs to me that bookmonk from Bradenton, Florida, might be even more mysterious than Mr. Durick aka Robert, whose geographic whereabouts no one knows but me, I think—and I ain't saying. We know where bookmonk lives, but his book collection is a mystery, except what he chooses to reveal. That's okay. I like a good mystery. Welcome to the thread, Gerry.

Maybe I will reserve the next iteration until after I read DD.

I was thinking the same thing about Gerry's collection. I'm thinking onion... one layer at a time.

I am so jealous re: Mr.Durrick's whereabouts... hmmm...

I have had to put away any serious reading for now while I unscramble my brain, anyone have any fluff suggestions?

AND!!! I have been around long enough now that I have fallen of the recent members list. Do I get a prize?

I stayed up until 10 pm watching for the solstice, but I don't think I saw it. The cat came through the window just after morning twilight with a pigeon to share as breakfast in bed to celebrate the new season. I didn't get up right away though. He had left me some of the bird.

When I did get up, the mail hadn't come yet, so I didn't know how to face the day. I came to hide in LibraryThing, but copyedit had broken it. I clicked on a link in a message he had posted on my profile, and it shut down the site.

There is no weather within more than ten degrees of me in any direction.

Robert

It was not intentional, Robert. A couple hours ago I was on this thread, clicked to another page, and never got there. Then I too was out in the LT-less wilderness. But it's nice that your cat brings you breakfast in bed, wherever you are.

Tani: no prizes for falling off the recent members list, because there is no such list. You're either here or you aren't.

Mr D's cool.
Lovely evening here in Michigan. Mostly cloudy and coolish. No more breeze than a baby would make. Zero on old Beaufort's Scale. Did I say wouldn't break one of your grandmother's most dainty tea cup?

For should the lore of the land become lost to the recollection of men, whether by forgetfulness of tradition or invasions of men of alien race or tongue, then will the land revert to what it was before its naming and settling: to the 9 forms of the elements, a formless mass, unfeeling, unmeaning, inchoate; with its kings unwed to the 'Sovranty of the Lord . . .

THE COMING OF THE KING (1989(
Nikolai Tolstoy

Hummph! There is too, Piero! It's on the Salon's main page. I have been waiting and waiting and now you tell me there is no prize? I am crushed.

Fortunately, we have a complaint department to answer such grievances. Here's the link:

http://www.librarything.com/profile/EnriqueFreeque

Piero, You make me smile...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtiAUBmcmV8

Jeez, Tani, you nearly made me cry. Thanks.

Jeez, Piero... I wanted company!

Sorry... she bows her head and asks forgiveness.

Or, there's Brian Wilson's Smile.

Hey, I can smile too. And btw, that was not a sarcastic thanks, Tani. Does this smiling character look like he trafficks in sarcasm?

http://www.librarything.com/pic/166465

Here's a really interesting article about the smile:

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/06/09/the-duchenne-smile

No, I know... Piero. That cutie is one of my favs. The sarcasm is usually my department anyway..

'Rique I am a HUGE Beach Boy fan and that poor 45 of mine barely has any grooves left! omg, now I have to go find as many BB tunes as I can. I am feeling a 60s jag comin' on... Does that go with crying jags?

Main interest in literary fiction and poetry. Wrote a lot of non-fiction in a past life.
--from Gerry's profile.

Perhaps Gerry was a scientist in that other life?

Now, that first smile I can get behind! Talk about eye candy! Too bad I am not a cougar. ;-)

And for you non "Lost" fans... Sawyer is definitely my favorite ship plane wrecker. Course, I do tend to go for the bad boys.

They dont tell the troof
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV69WBvFGBA

Somehow, I need to get away and crank up the tunage. Jeez! I have been taking care of the parentals for so long I had forgotten what it does for my soul.

Is the Piero at 30 pic the "Digging Deeper" era Piero?

Y'know, it occurred to me that people who read the book, whenever it comes out, wouldn't connect that photo, taken in Berkeley, with the narrator, who is sardonic (of course) but doesn't bring to mind Timothy Leary laughing on the cover of one of his books, probably soon after he dropped acid. So that laughing photo will not be the cover, which a friend of mine is working on. Instead, I believe the cover will be my face overlaid with black and white and gray abstractions in the style of Hans Hoffmann, Adolph Gottlieb, and Franz Kline: abstract expressionists. This is a scoop: you heard it here first.

Will it be published in Australia Piero?

Actually, I'm publishing it, through an outfit in England: Epic Press. I think. They are so far no more responsive than the Italians. I sent them the manuscript last week and I'm still waiting for a response. Bu then, maybe I'm too impatient.

fair dinkum? Strike me pink, cobber, a dinky-di Strine version of your old earbashin' doovalacky. Well I'll be blowed.

ETA now that makes no sense! Why'd you take it out?

He should quit at ten o'clock, I keep telling him that. He says the dumbest things when it gets too late.

She's right.

Sorry I pulled the rug out from under you, Sheila. I was saying the English company prints in Australian too, to which you responded with your string of unintelligible words.

Actually, Epic prints their books in Pennsylvania, and like more expensive self-publishing outfits, like Xlibris, whom I went with for the psychedelic memoir, they distribute to online outfits like amazon, barnesandnoble, abe books, and the online side of bookstores like Powell's, Border's, etc. Also, Epic is cheaper, and they won't bother me with phony marketing appeals that don't actually sell any books. They also, like Xlibris, allow me to do the cover, which traditional publishers generally don't. (I'm outlining the world of self-publishing here). The Italian translation of I Think, Therefore Who Am I?, by the publisher in Rome, on the other hand, would in fact appear in bookstores--in Italy. And of course you'd have to read it in Italian. If they ever stop having holidays over there and send me the contract.

Now I know that summer is here. There is something about twilight after a warm day and the smells! It reminds me of trips to SoCal as a kid. Driving through the desert at night with the windows down.

I live in Florida, "The Sunshine State", and have warm weather year-long. Lucky me.

Here it is winter solstice. I'm wearing boots and fingerless gloves, and it was dark by 5pm today. Cold rain this afternoon, and the only pleasant twilight smell we get here at the moment is soup cooking - and even that's not chowder.

Y'know, normally I like being different, but sometimes I get a bit lonely here on the Nature Thread. Always the opposite of everyone else... :(

Piero, I just discovered I can get I think, therefore who am I? on fishpond.com so I guess I could get Digging Deeper from the same place. Keep us posted, as I'm sure you will!

Where do you live, ChocolateMuse? Has to be somewhere in the southern hemisphere.

Gerry: ChocoMuse, known as many other things since the "Name the Sheila" contest we had on the last thread, lives in New South Wales, Australia, in the vicinity of Sydney. (She lists her various names on her profile; just click on anyone's blue monicker to get to their page; anything in blue will in fact take you somewhere.)

To her, I say, Sheila: whenever I enter something about spring, a virtual you appears, out there and down to the left (in the geographic part of my brain), experiencing something other than spring (this of course will be reversed in about five months), and it occurs to me then to add that not all of us are walking around in short sleeves and shorts. That is, it seems I might be hurting your feelings by not qualifying my springlike entries. Which is absurd, I know, but there it is. So, to uncouple this oversensitivity from its associative connection to virtual you, I declare now that (nothing personal, no offense) I can't help the fact that it's not spring everywhere.

And, actually, now, summer. Summer solstice makes me sad because the days start getting shorter now. Thinking about winter, Rena, makes me sadder. The older I get the more I dislike it. The time will come when I will be able to get out of here for the worst of it. Maybe for you, too?

Today, we are participating in a cruise sponsored by a group to which I belong on which we take folks out who are physically and mentally disabled. We do this every year and it is great fun. I have been involved for about 11 years, and we have NEVER had bad weather during the cruise. We get storms before, after, but not during. The weather forecast seems to indicate that we are likely to have some storms after. Should be another perfect year.

This just in:

Whereas the Proprietor warrants that he is the sole and exclusive owner of the rights which are the subject of this Agreement and whereby it is mutually agreed as follows regarding the book entitled I THINK THEREFORE WHO AM I? by author Peter Weissman (hereinafter called the Work):

1. The Proprietor hereby grants for a period of 10 (ten) years from the date of this Agreement
to the Publisher the exclusive Licence to publish and sell the Work in the Italian language, subject to the following terms and conditions ...

Further down it says that Lantana Editore has to come out with the book no later than 18 months after the contratto is signed.

Some contemporary Italian poetry, to celebrate (I celebrate every added and deleted comma and semicolon nowadays):

Here All Begins

Here all begins.
the comings and goings of faint sunsets
and of dark-sick sunrises
mark my children’s age.
living is like recovering
always: waiting
is the one remedy to madness.
or is like a pawnshop
where they lend you one third of good,
and every six months you renew your heart
for a helpless smile.
I realise I’m growing old
by settled loans,
by paid and unpaid bills
by higher and higher dental expenses
by car and boiler wear and tear
by scrape and win lottery useless cards
by evenings in web
seeking in the virtual the real.
I still trust you Leopardi,
but no more the vigour of the past
memory is a piteous curse
timeless without dimensions,
melancholy gave her chair
to the teacher of all teachers: the instant.
on him I depend, from him I learn
now ... the friendly art.

Massimo Rossi

If you are looking for a fast paced, well told, imaginative page turner let me recommend The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. It's not the first of the Pendergast mysteries, but it's the first one in which he plays a major role, and it sets up many of the rest of them, however, it is a standalone read in all details except some of the characters and that only because some of them have appeared in other books before. But this is an excellent mystery/adventure. I heartily recommend it to everyone.

30: Thanks for finding my new favorite website! Wow, all those articles are so fascinating. Since last year when I first read about the Dunning-Kroger Effect and started thinking a lot about confirmation bias, I have been looking for more info like this.

Woo Hoo! The Italians FINALLY sent the contract! Are you totally jazzed, Piero?

I knew I wasn't the only one who felt that way about the Solstice! Thanks, Lisa for joining my sentiments.

Ah, poor Rena... You are in my thoughts... it seems as though I just left winter behind last week (what with the snow falling on the 15th of June here on the high desert). I am sending warmth your way.

Gerry, my bones envy yours. ;-)

It is 10:30am and 55° climbing into the low 80s. Ahhhhhh.....

msg 50

Great poem, Copyedit. Must read Massimo Rossi.

I can't go to bed to read until I have put out the night food for the cat. I cannot do that until after sunset because the pigeons eat it when there is daylight. I am happy with earlier sunsets. I believe that they began to get earlier before the solstice; my happiness was growing over the whole last week or two.

Robert

55: My sister has two dogs and 4 cats. She says that her family always eat dinner before they feed the dogs because they have to show the dogs who is "alpha." I told that to my mother who dotes on her two Flame Point Siamese and she pointed out that there is no contest as to who's alpha with them. (They run the entire house.) Looks like you dote on your cats almost as much!

I hear you, Robert.

If I did one of those graphs that show increases and declines over a period of time, with logistics on the vertical axis and age (in years) on the horizontal, it would be a steadily increasing incline of putting the cat food out and making coffee until they eat it so I can throw them out of the house, closing windows when it's hot during the day and cooler in the evening, arranging chores so I can hit the post office, the grocery store, the dump, or whatever, in one smooth motion, and so on.

Raccoons upset my outdoor feeding regimen for the cats a few years ago.

>55 Mr.Durick:

My cat thinks he's smarter than me. Maybe he is. He tortures me sometimes, waking me up by kneading me.

It was a perfect cruise and we did not have storms at all today! Temps up to almost 90, but a nice breeze and flat water. Our guests had a great day, and the hosts did, too.

I read that about not feeding the animals first so that they know who is the "alpha". Since I prefer to eat without paws on my knees, I said "that's nice" and feed them first. That way they just sit politely and look like they have not had enough instead of trying to get at my plate. That look works with my husband--he always manages to have something to give them when he is finished. Fortunately, the two west highland terrorists (turn of phrase stolen from Urania who has welsh terrorists) are not too big.

Turns out, me and the Big Macha had a conference last night--actually, he was on the freeway, coming home from his boring job, and I was in my living room--and it was decided that Nature might not be ubiquitous enough to accommodate all the road trips people are threatening to take this summer--it is summer, by golly!--people like Porius, who might travel down the Ohio River to ... somewhere, and Todd, who might end up in Edmonton, for all he knows, and slickdpdx, whose travel plans I know nothing about ...

Anyway, we're going to have a separate thread for that kind of thing, and I thought I'd warn you before posting it. After all, I'm not the kind who just goes posting threads willy-nilly, as some of you know, except the World Cup thread, which came to me sudden-like. So I'm going to go start that thread now, and I'll come back with the link, for anyone who's interested ...

On the Road, River, Rails, etc.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/93458

>47 copyedit52:, 48, 52: Thanks you all for your condolences. I didn't mean to inflict guilt on anyone, though I guess it's a good thing I enabled Piero to get his particular guilt out there on the table. That's guilt on a hemispherical level, Petro! Let it go, mate, I'll survive down here...

*surreptitiously wipes away tear*

Actually, I'd like to add that I do not by any means grudge you your summer. I'm sincerely glad for you in all your sunshine and cruises and twilight scents. Nor do I hate my winter, which after all has its compensations. It's merely that sometimes, amazingly, my liking of being different from the herd gets indulged a little too much, and whenever I post about my atmospheric conditions, I know there's no one out there who'll look out the window and nod and think, "yes, that's exactly how it is!"

Muchismo bueno - I display my nonexistant Italian in celebration of your contract, Petros :)

Little considered benefit to winter in the country, and probably the suburbs too: It's QUIET!

It was hotter than I like it today but complaining is probably not the right way to go. A fine evening so far with blue skies and not much atmospheric disturbance. The weather channel gurus are always yammering on about the 'dewpoint', while I'm not too sure about what that is it is a little sticky. We might have some thunderstorms rolling in this evening and that won't trouble me the least little bit.
I mentioned earlier that I have been wanting to travel the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to as far as maybe Cairo, Ill. I'd love to do it by water but I don't know if it's possible to get from Pitts. to Cairo without major interruption. I dream of chugging down the river listening to John Hartford and sipping on one sort of liquid refreshment or another. We'll see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fXXkybycsU

We had two enormous racoons at the back door last night giving our cat (a strictly indoors cat) a hard time; then a skunk got involved. P.U.! The racoons were really bold. I wonder were they trying to escape the skunk?

You know how in the weather they call a day cloudy, partly cloudy etc.? Here in the Portland, OR area we've had only four "sunny" days since April 1. Though today might have qualified. I wouldn't know. All I do is work these days.

I've not chimed in on these nature threads - 'til now - but I love following them. And reading the poetry.

Well, I certainly won't complain about the weather today. It did not hit the 80° as promised up here, but down in Bend it did. It became overcast mid afternoon, but as I look out the window now it is breaking up. I am looking forward to going out on the porch later this evening for my twilight scents.

No guilt here, just commiserating Rena darlin'!

Piero, Big Macha? I thought that Macha was an Irish Goddess. ;-) I hope that he was using a headset and not texting while on the freeway.

Raining here now, steadily, the rain slapping the leaves through the open windows. I like it. And here slick shows up, another prx-er, just when the Big Macha wanted to consign him to the sticks. It is possible, Tani, that I misspelled Macha, or mis-somethinged it, since I was thinking of the Yiddish word mocher, maybe. The Big Shot would be a rough synonym. And I too hope the lunatic wasn't driving and texting. But what do you mean "down in Bend"? My sense of geography puts up at North and down at South, and if my radar is working right, you are down from Bend in Big Pine, not up.

Yeah, that does sound pfunny, huh? By down, I mean in elevation we are about 600' higher. (It's La Pine) Kinda goes along with Deschutes I guess.

Yeah, that does sound pfunny, huh? By down, I mean in elevation we are about 600' higher. (It's La Pine) Kinda goes along with Deschutes I guess.

I guess I have developed Porius' stutter...

45 and 61 chocolatemuse: I looked out the window and thought "Yes, that's exactly how it is!"

Ooh, Blackheath! I lived in Glenbrook for a year, but that's yearlong summer compared to Blackheath! Very pleased to meetcha Thrin!

All welcome a fellow Aussie, from Blackheath, Blue Mountains. Land of spectacular mountain views, the ubiquitous B&B in abundance, 'heritage' houses, and frost hanging from the tops of trees at this time of year.

See that Petro? I used 'ubiquitous' in the 'ubiquitous' thread!

Well, wouldja lookit that, another New South Waleser! And one who, like me, has read all of Raymond Chandler, I see, except for the crappy stuff they've exhumed and published the past decade or so. By the way, Thrin, what's the Aussie masculine equivalent for Sheila?

You beat me by a minute, Sheila. What time is it there, anyway? Didja all just wake up? This time zone stuff can be confusing. I think they should abolish it.

Welcome, Thrin! Woo Hoo, Another Aussie!

>71 copyedit52:, I dunno, I think it'd just have to be 'Bloke', whaddya think, Thrin?

Also, I like your collection of music-related books. We share a few. I'm supposedly reading The Rest is Noise at the moment, but it's fallen off the perch a bit.

Peter, it's lunch time. I'm on a lunch break. As I push 'Submit', it's 12.28 pm.

Which allows me to ask what I've been wondering for a while - how many regular posters on Nature correspond exactly to the times at the top of the post?

ETA: So I'm exactly 14 hours ahead. I've never sat down and actually worked that out before.

-3 hours

>74 ChocolateMuse:

Lunch time in Sydney. Reminds me of the movie title "Sleepless in Seattle". I was in Sydney 3 years ago and loved it.

Took me a moment to decode Tani's reply, but yes, she's right: you're apparently 14 hours earlier than I am, here on the East Coast, Sheila, and it seems LT is East Coast centric, since the time on Tani's post is close to mine, though it's three hours earlier where she lives, in La Pine, not Big Pine. Sorry about that, Tani. One of the two times that Henri actually got angry at me (not the faux anger he often affects) was when I said in a post that he lived in Chico. It should have been Chino. Maybe he thought I was being racist; he should've known better if so: I was merely being garden variety ignorant.

I wish I had some animal or weather stories. I've got wild lizards in my backyard, now that I think about it. They enjoy chasing one another on the block walls through strands of ivy. Little guys, maybe the biggest one is nine inches long. My youngest (four yr. old) gets upset when I try and catch them. Reptile phobia phase. They're fun to hold, kiss on the lips.

That trip down the Ohio R., Por-Man, sounds fabulous. I'm hoping to do the Colorado through the Grand Canyon one of these days. I've hiked the Canyon several times, but never ran what made it.

Glad to see ChocMuse ain't so lonesome no more, w/another Aussie.

I only drive when I'm driving, Aunt Tani. Hadn't left the bow-ring job when the elder Macha and I talked travel threads backstage.

Belated congrats, Piero. Thanks goodness those Eye-talians got back to you before August. Nobody in all of Europe, I believe, lifts a finger in August. Ask Mac. He took off last Aug. w/out a word to nobody. Worried sick about him. He best not do that this summer. It's okay, I mean, for him to take off to some Greek Isle, as long as he reports he's doing so somewhere.

Chico, Piero, is in Northern California, an hour or two south of Mt. Shasta. No Cals hate So Cals, because we steal their water, so I can't be friendly to them back, and certainly can't ever be associated with them in any way. I'm happy here in Chino. We've got both the California Correctional Inst. for Men and Women, plus Boy's Republic, for male juvey's.

Thank you, 'Rique... I am very pwoud proud of you. ;-)

ETA (seems my fingers are dyslexic)

The Aussie masculine equivalent of 'Sheila'? I suppose it would have to be 'bloke' as ChocolateMuse said, but 'bloke' is still regularly heard. I've never heard anyone refer to a woman as a 'Sheila' (except on LibraryThing). Wasn't 'Sheila' used when people talked about 'coves'? And wasn't 'Sheila' a bit, well, vulgar?

Thanks for the welcome by the way.

And, yes, it's lunchtime. I'm eating Pastizzi (spinach and ricotta); just thought I'd 'share'. Yeuk.

Shhh Thrin, I haven't told them about the subtext of Sheila. I know here on LT it's not meant in the derogative sense, and in the way Peter means it, I kinda like it.

Now I have to rethink everything I ever said and everything ever said to me.

Ooops!

Poor Piero, we still love you!

Thrin, you've gone and opened a Pandora's box... I know you didn't mean to, and all is forgiven, but it's slightly sad.

Peter, just pretend none of this ever happened, okay? If an aussie called me "that sheila" I'd be offended - you calling me 'Sheila' is endearing.

> Henri, it is 0600 in the morning here and you already made me laugh. But it's true, I will report more consistently.

Oh Rique!!! Too freequen funny!!! The 1st comment on that one had me ROFLMAO! And I quote:

"I just danced naked in my bedroom at 3 am to this song over and over!!!"

(Dang! I have been waiting all afternoon and evening to finally be able to post this... Having difficulties uploading to PB)

My cat is the King of our Castle despite what Papa may think. He beats up the dogs (he is a 20 pound bulls-eye tabby; they are 12/13 pound shih tzu/maltese ) and will take over any chair, couch or lap he is so inclined to sleep on or kneed. Because he is my cat he will defer to me at night only gently caressing my face for a massage while I read. After the lights go out he will either try to climb onto my side (crushing my lungs) or when I boot his ass he stretches out along my back or kisses my exposed feet. And then there is the trip downstairs in the morning when he feels the need to walk in front of me a few steps, wait, take a few more steps and wait until I yell at him.

This was 5 years ago at our house on Mt Hood:

Well, okay, now I have to reveal why I thought sheila was an innocent, uninflected term so to speak.

I was doing the New York Times crossword puzzle (sound familiar, Choco?), because I heard it was a good preventive measure--to keep your brain buzzing--in order to stave off Alzheimer's ...

Now don't get the wrong idea and go all PC on me for being insensitive. My bedridden mother had dementia, and she didn't make much sense even before then (a Pisces, Henri, like you), and I'd lose it around her, get angry, shout, do no one any good at all until I began to see humor in her non sequiturs and irrationalities, and even repeat what she said back to her, with an incredulous upflection, and laugh and sometimes even get a smile out of her, which was better for all concerned. But I certain didn't want to become like her, not that there's any danger of that, as you all can clearly see that I have a mind as sharp as ... something sharp. A Ring Lardner, maybe.

... which I heard about--that crosswords keep the mind active--because I was editing a book on the subject, during a period when I was driving down there to take my mother to a doctor on Long Island so she could be diagnosed and then get something that might help--Aricept, as it turned out. I began doing these puzzles at the time, which I never finished and still don't, but kinda enjoy, going over and over and over the same clues again and again until my brain is buzzing like a bee. And, as with the prime minister of Australia, whose name I don't remember but it begins with an H and contains four letters, or maybe an R, I came across this clue, which read something like Australian lass or maybe lassie, because I recall wondering if it was a dog.

Anyway, I tote my life around with me wherever I go, like if I go out to buy a bottle of wine (you remember my former dentist, from the underappreciated author thread, who turned his practice into a liquor store?), I'll ask, "What's a six letter word for 'Argentine wine'?" so I can fill that in and open up a few more possibilities.

One evening, me and the missus go to dinner at this place we used to go, which has gone downhill what with new ownership, and there's a waitress I hadn't seen before, with an accent that sounds like the insurance gecko. Being who I am, I ask her, "Where're you from, anyway?"

"Aus-treye-lya," she says, and takes our order and disappears. The place was crowded that night and there wasn't much time for chitchat if you were a waiter, which I once was, for a while.

When she comes back with the salads, I ask her, "What's a six letter word for 'Australian lass'?"

She's startled, thinks a moment, then replies, "'Sheila.'" Without any hint that she was saying anything off color.

So that's why.

>63 Porius: Peter: It is possible to do the entire trip by water, but I don't know what you consider major interruption! Have a look at this U.S. Army Corps web site: http://www.lrd.usace.army.mil/navigation/ohioriver/

980 miles and about 20 locks to go through. I have traveled the last 70 or so miles--Cumberland River to Cairo where the Ohio meets the Mississippi. Not a pretty part. I hear the upper parts are better.

> 91 Great reading. Post the next chapter manana... Pulease...

Thanks for info. LC. I am interested in land formations so I can't decide or don't know which mode of transportation would be better. I will do some checking.
Thunderstorm of the middling variety so far. No great Billy Golembieski strikes to record. Just those smooth Earl Anthony southpawhookstrikes.

Getting pretty hot out there.

Food updates: The other day I made a savory bread pudding with tomatos and cheese. Tonight I think stir fry. I have an initial idea for my Thanksgiving menu...mmm...Thanksgiving.

Funny. I was just sitting outside on the deck in back, ruminating about how people from warm weather climes must like being enveloped by the heat--as I merely try to accept it--and then you show up, Jane, a child of the South, remarking on how hot it feels. And, perhaps revealingly, contemplating Thanksgiving, which is a cooler season.

I can't speak for everyone, but I don't know anyone who likes the heat. However, I will say that the heat in North Georgia, is different than the heat in Texas, by as many as 20F at times.

Speaking of lizards, we have a colony, or gabble, or gout, or whatever one calls an extended family of blue-tailed skinks, living under the porch. One of them races across in front of the sliding glass door by the living room every evening. I could set my watch by it, if I needed to know the time more accurately than just daylight and dark.

We had a section of our porch screened in last week and I am so excited. I just open the screen door and let it slam. One of the most comforting sounds from my youth: the sound of a slamming screen door as I raced out of the house. Back in the day everybody had a screen door. It's the original genesis of the term, "Don't let the door slam". Ah, the screen door slam, what a wonderful, comforting sound. I wonder if Mr. Poust ever heard such a sound.

>97 geneg:

And then there's humidity. I find high temps of dry heat e.g. Arizona, easier to bear. Of course, in dry heat one must be careful to drink water (or other beverages !!) to avoid becoming dehydrated. Our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan drink a lot of water during the summer season.

Your roving reporter from Chicago--Tornado sirens going off in downtown Chicago! I cannot remember the last time I heard that. Some really bad storms moving through--the worst of it so far is going south of my harbor. I managed to get on the boat before it hit, just barely. My poor dogs have not been able to go out, but they are amazingly calm in their crates. As I sit here, the wind and rain are letting up, but there seems to be more lightning. We have had buckets of rain between the storms this morning and these storms. Even O'Hare and Midway are shut down, and they almost never shut down Midway.

#99 Radar map showing lines of storms from around Chicago heading here to Marblehead OH. Those storms last night really had a LOT of lightning. The one this pm wasn't too bad, but TWC maps show another batch heading our way.

There's an article about the disappearance of sun spots. Does that make the lightning stronger? Weaker? More? Less?

96 - No, I don't care for the heat at all. The South, however, at least knows how to use air conditioning. Here 83 degrees is considered a comfortable indoor temperature...blah. Not to say that I like the cold either - and the impossibly long days drive me crazy up here.

97 - Completely agree about the screen door. That and rain on a tin roof. Wonderful.

99 - Yikes...keep safe tonight.

5.5 earthquake in...Toronto? Polutropos and Lola Walser live in Toronto thereabouts. Anybody else we know? That's a sizable quake for an area not used to them.

The storms have moved through. "Red sky at night, sailors delight; red sky at morning, sailors take warning" or something very close to that. Here is our "red sky at night"

Lovely, Lisa.

Your quote reminded me of a song called Red Skies.

88> That's pretty early to start laughing, Mac. That concerns me. I never start laughing until at least noon.

The contratto is in the mail, from Roma. Hallelujah! How do you say that in Eye-talian? And the publisher in England, Epic Press, got in touch with me this morning--Atif, his name is--concerning the usual manuscript glitches, but he and his people are on it, at least. So let the storms come, I say. But not earthquakes. Since it was centered in Quebec, I wonder why I didn't feel anything. Not a quiver.

Hallelujah is hallelujah! You could say "che bella giornata"--that beautiful day.
Pietro, è molto buono. Congratulazione.

105 ARe the groupies already swarming towards you ?

Interesting question. I haven't seen them, but maybe they're lurking out there somewhere.

But consider this: A few weeks ago me and the missus went to our favorite Italian restaurant with a couple of friends. The owner knows me on sight and we always exchange greetings. That evening, I gave him a copy of the book, which I inscribed, told him it would be translated into Italian and published there, which was why we'd come to celebrate. When it came time for dessert, the waitress brought over a huge plate of tira misu, cannoli, biscotti, on the house. I felt like a celebrity. Which brought to mind John Lennon when he was asked whether being a Beatle had made a difference in his life; this, after he quipped that they were more popular than Jesus. He replied: "When I go to a restaurant now, I get a better table."

Don't know how cute you are but have you seen Salman Rushdie's girlfriends after the succes of Midnight Children...

I'm cuter when I'm virtual.

an aphorism to remember : )

These days it is much easier, P.

More Italian poetry:

The Goat

I spoke with a goat.
She was alone in a field, tethered.
Sated with grass, bathed
by rain, she was bleating.

That steady bleating was like a brother
to my sorrow. And I replied
first as a joke, then because sorrow
is eternal, has one voice
and never varies;
the voice I heard
groaning, in a solitary goat.

In a goat with semitic features,
I heard pleading its case
every other trouble
every other life.

Umberto Saba
translated by Katherine Jackson

Or take the spider-finger syndrome, arachnodactyly. Statistically it appears to have a greater incidence in certain inbred ethnic groups. The hand is tenuous, sometimes lengthy, but the fingers, while otherwise normal, remind one of something in the nature of an insect scampering over the page. Incredibly thin and elongated, they are spider fingers in very truth. Lay people occasionally observe these things half-consciously but they are frequently unaware of their rarity, the storehouse of potential lying below the actual from which these oddities are drawn. They do not know that in their own germ plasm may linger things as unique. Indeed one may occasionally look back upon a fragment of the past, as in the shape of a huge brow ridge, or even see the unknown features of our far distant progeny peeping into existence. - Loren Eisely, from ALL THE STRANGE HOURS, The Excavation of a Life.

We are ALL cuter when we're virtual... ;-)

It takes takes that judging a book by it's cover to a whole new level. Here we see what's inside. I like that.

>!!0

I'm cuter when I'm drunk.

Headline in today's (Kingston) Daily Freeman:

Hudson Valley feels Canadian quake
Temblor causes some fear but no injuries or serious damage

I guess I must have dozed off and missed it.

Several years ago I observed a tremor in S. Ontario. Didn't feel it but saw my hanging mugs swaying. Is there a fault in the Great Lakes or nearby? It isn't my fault :)

After a stormy day we have a plu-perfect evening. Cool temps. Cool breezes. If you could order the weather for an evening this might be it untill you got sick of it.

The piece in the paper began: "An earthquake centered north of Ottawa was felt in the Hudson Valley, elsewhere in New York State, and across a wide swath of the Northeast on Wednesday."

So maybe there is a fault line somewhere up there--Ontario, Quebec--Canada, which they say is just like us only less so (thank goodness). In California, most people probably have an idea where the fault lines are, but quakes happen so rarely here, and when they do they're not powerful, so we pay attention to stuff that does affect us, like hurricanes and nor'easters. Some of us even sleep through them.

Canadian correction: Except for Montreal, with its smoked meats and local bagels, French and Portuguese food, marvelous marketplaces and devil-may-care elan vital.

Why are there so many earthquakes all of a sudden? Or have they always been there and I just didn't know?

There's been an earthquake in Australian politics. Has it made international news? (That was a joke - I imagine that even without World Cup, it would still barely make the back page.) Anyway, our Labor party met to have a 'leadership election', and our highly unpopular prime minister stepped down before it was too late when it became clear he was going to be voted down. And so now we have our first female prime minister to replace him! Oz-Land is buzzing.

So Piero, our PM no longer has four letters starting with H (actually, it was Rudd, not Hudd, did you ever get that cleared up?). When you sit down to your crossword next time, remember, it's now Julia Gillard.

Back to the sheila business, I'm thinking some nomenclature is in order.

sheila n: a word used by Australian men when referring to a woman in the third person (usually to his mates) in order to objectify her or indicate possession.

Sheila prop n: a name bestowed on ChocolateMuse by copyedit52 indicating friendliness and virtual cuteness on the part of both parties.

A few years ago I was taking the tour of the Sydney Opera House. The tour guide pointed out the architectural beams and I asked him if they were earthquake proof. He said there was never earthquakes in Australia so it wasn't a problem!!

:-) Possibly rather optimistic of him. I think I remember learning in school that Australia is on one plate so earthquakes are highly unlikely? Or something like that. My understanding of the science of earthquakes is embarrassingly minimal.

To my knowledge there hasn't been one here at least since white invasion in 1788.

I'm going to see Pirates of Penzance at said Opera House in August! Is that considered lowbrow in this place?

By "this place," place Sheila (prop n), do you mean this place, where no one puts on airs? Or some other place, where they do? Btw, I'm glad that four-letter guy is out of power, I can tell you. He left a lasting gap on my puzzle page (no I never got that cleared up).

Gilbert and Sullivan are always worthwhile even though I listen to more classical music myself. Not very big on Opera -- more symphony and chamber music. Did see Bizet's Carmen in Sydney, though, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Does "Shiela" come from the common Irish first name? With so many Irish immigrants to Australia (many to the convict colonies!) I wouldn't be surprised.

Pirates of Penzance at the Sydney Opera House! Well that's what we get for building the thing right on the harbour's edge. Long way from Cornwall though. (It was Cornwall, wasn't it?)

>127 bookmonk8888: sounds a highly likely explanation. I don't know.

>128 Thrin: I do believe it was Cornwall. My mother tells me (I find it hard to believe) that I am actually descended from one of the real Ps of P. And on the other side, I am descended from an English convict who stole a greatcoat. So don't mess with me, me hearties, 'cos blood always tells.

I went to my first-ever opera this year, it was La Traviata, also at this same opera house. And then I went to Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which latter was indescribably awesome. And I went to Coppelia, my first ballet, same place, same year. All gifts from generous friends bent on enculturating me. I'm loving it.

And it's not a plnat, and it didn't really sprout, but here's a picture of Sydney Opera House:

Beautiful... Never been to an opera, but enjoy anything on the stage. Have seen Alvin Ailey's American Dance Theater and The Joffrey Ballet. Cats is the only Broadway show I have seen (all in PDX). Some of my best memories are tied Dance and Theater.

A good reference work on opera: http://www.librarything.com/work/65662/edit/51577134

Yeah I remember that strange building from the Nemo movie.
Dad has finally arrived in Sydney to free his boy

A friend decided to take a nap in my backyard this afternoon. A 4 point buck and then his son or brother; a forked horn came along a few minutes later:

God I love this place!!!

> 116

I am cuter when your drunk.

> 130

The Sidney Opera House tends to show up in any US news coverage relating to Australia. It has become one of those iconic pictures that lets you know where you are.

That's a Frank Gehry building, I believe. Looks like a copse of silver potato chips? There's one ten miles from here, across the Hudson, on the campus of Bard College; not the size of the Sydney Opera House, of course. And down in the city, the humongous plan to change Brooklyn with an office/housing complex was going to include a Gehry for the centerpiece: a sports arena (which will house the New Jersey Nets basketball team). Then came the financial meltdown and the builder, Ratner, had a hard time raising money (among other things, he had to sell his share in the team to Prokhorov, the billionaire Russian) and scale back the project--though the size of it is still an obscenity--and now Gehry is out of the picture and the arena will be a more standard affair.

136 - Nope - Jorn Utson. Little too early for Gehry. Gehry's well-known style developed fairly late in his career. Originally he was building stuff like this:



Then one of the developers he was working for had dinner at his house:



and said he should be building stuff like that.

I was hoping out resident architect would show up. Thanks for the correction, Jane, and the pix.

A reminder: Beginning Moday, June 28, we'll be observing "Water Appreciation Week."

So gather your poems, photos, songs, scientific treatises, mythological references, baptism stories, regatta results, the best places to surf and fish and swim; descriptions of ocean and river trips and melting ice caps and polluted seas (let's not avoid the unpleasant).

Here's a sample:

Various contests have declared tap water in the following places the tastiest: Boston, Salt Lake City, the Sioux (South Dakota) Rural Water System, Los Angeles (!), St. Louis, Hamilton (Ohio), and, most recently, Stevens Point. In the last of these events, the Wisconsin city (or is it a town?) edged out New York City, which for years has been considered numero uno. The water in the reservoir just up the road from me (the Ashokan) and in surrounding counties supplies the city, so I guess my well water (which I find tasteless) must be pretty delicious.

On the nether side, tap water in Florida is considered the worst, because it's so soft. (Sorry, Gerry.) I don't know about the taste, but I once took a shower down there (I take one every few months), and it took me about an hour and a half to wash the soap off.

Bull Run watershed is PDX's water source and has been touted to be the best which is probably why we have so many micro breweries in Portland. There are 10 in downtown PDX alone.

http://www.portlandonline.com/water/index.cfm?c=29784

Bull Run photo shot by a family friend (you can't just visit Bull Run so this is special)


In fact, before bottled water was a mainstay in our society, Mayor Ivancie (I think) started a campaign of selling Bull Run water in bottles. Slick or Anna, do you remember this? It was back in the early to mid 80s.

CM, I spent an hour or so yesterday afternoon trying to make sense of what happened, politically, in your country, and was going to ask you if it was seen as a big deal Down Under. I gather from what I read yesterday, it actually is. In fact I saw a chart of women in charge in Austraqlia beginning with QEII, running through the Governor-General (is that a mostly ceremonial post?) and Prime Minister down to a couple of subordinate ministers. Maybe with the government in the hands of women you can escape all the petulant lunacy, petty bickering, posturing, and suffering from huge testosterone dumps that men are periodically subject(ed) to when they are in charge.

tc, the backdrop in the photo of the deer reminds me of a hundred Westerns set in the High Plains. Reminds me of a day I spent walking in the woods above Lake Tahoe. Lots of pines, little underbrush, and open woodland.

Well, a little news, we found a nest of indigenous American poisonous spiders complete with eggs about to hatch. This spider would look like a walk in the park compared to what you in the antipodes have: no funnel web spiders here, but they can make you quite ill, and occasionally cause some rather nasty necrotic conditions leading to amputations. On top of that, we found a non-poisonous snake in the night time dog enclosure (a fence we have next to the house that allows our dog to do his business before bed-time without having to worry about the coyotes, coons and possums), not to mention the rat that ran past after the snake had been removed. The snake would probably have taken care of the rat had we known the rat was there beforehand. Ah, life in the country in the city.

I once spent seven days in Sydney and have my own photos somewhere of the Opera House, and huge hovercraft skimming across the harbor. The photo I regret not getting, but was pleased to honor the request, was of the old Aboriginal fellow who when I pointed my camera at him let me know in no uncertain terms that I was not welcome to take his picture. After seeing "The Last Wave', I was glad I did honor the gentleman. I don't want no Aborigine stealing my dreams.

A little story about Australia, actually about people, but what else is there, after all. Okay, people in Australia. This is not for the prudish, so please don't say you weren't warned.

We had just arrived by bus at the hotel in Sydney where we would be separated and sent to our various hotels for the stay. This was in 1968, I was on R&R from Vietnam, and was really looking forward to the next seven days. Anyway, we were sitting on the bus waiting for our advisors to get us moving, when someone noticed and then the whole bus noticed an amusing, ultimately embarrasing scene across the street. Three people were at a table in a restaurant two guys and one girl. The two guys were sitting down and the young girl was leaning against one of the guys. There were curtains drawn and I'm sure the guy/girl combination thought they were invisible from the street, but the girls back side had broken through the curtain so that it was plainly visible to the street and the fellows on the bus. The guy she was leaning aqainst had his hand high up between her legs, with her undies pulled about half way down, and was working it pretty hard. After about thirty seconds, the forced staring of the guys on the bus caused the girl to turnaround, see that all the action was taking place in public, blurt something out and vanish behind the curtain. The two guys pulled the curtain apart, saw us all looking out of the bus, and the guy with the girl gave us a thumbs up sign and closed the curtain. We never saw the girl again. It was at this point that I knew I was really going to enjoy myself in Australia, and I did. Immensely!

Gene... too funny! So my trees don't bother you? I know how you feel about them. We do love our Ponderosas up here.

Acckkk!!! I have the creepy crawlies over your spiders. *she shudders*

138 - No problem...perhaps one week we can do architectural appreciation.

134 - What a cutie!

122 - I read an article about this today actually...sounds exciting.

143 on 134.

You mean me, don't you?

Another lovely day here in Michigan. 78 degrees. 34 humidiitity. Very much the San Diego kind of weather day. Hot in the sun & cool in the shade. Gentle zephyrs that wouldn't or wootent hurt a flea as 'Dubbya' would say.
Just a little political note: I get all excited when obama says he's going to clean things up in Afghanistan?! Wow that cat is sure living in a dream world. He and his 'brain trust' should do a little reading or at least, I know they're busy these days, watch THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING. Though I'm afraid the big o. is more comfortable making us feel good or lecturing us on subjects like parenthood or some such hobby. It seems to me that it won't be long till the 'yes we can' kool-aide will be on the 75% off shelf.

144> not unless you're, uh, deer to Jane!

>146 absurdeist:

Touche!

Well as far as bottled water I would have to say a word for Mountain Valley Spring water out of Hot Springs in Arkansas. They have been selling the stuff since 1871 and it is fair tasting. I myself drink tap water. I am very close to a member of the Guy City Council and she assures me that all is well at the local water plant. More than you ever wanted to know about the Hot Springs water can be found at http://mountainvalleyspring.com/company-history.aspx

146 - I see what you did there. :)

Oh dear me!

145 - Ouch, Por Man!

Clearly, Peter's bullshit detector is bedeviling him today:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/92000#2048604

;-) Gotta love that PorMan!

Das rite.

So, today was an absolutely beautiful day on the high desert. Mid 80s with a slight breeze and a few cumulus clouds hanging about here and there. Went shopping with my sister-in-law, who I have not seen since late last summer, in Bend and thoroughly enjoyed catching up with her and my brother's mis-adventures on the Baja over the winter.

Outlook for summer is good. Hot this weekend with a brief cool-down next week. I am coming into my element now. No more SADD... Yes!

Good for you, Tani.

>154 Porius:

Das Kapital - I mean capital :)

>155 highdesertlady:

Tani, your second pic on your profile is very beautiful. You should have it as your primary pic.

Why, thank you, Gerry... you're making me blush. *cheeks are pink*

In the Library
for Octavio

There's a book called
"A Dictionary of Angels."
No one has opened it in fifty years,
I know, because when I did,
The covers creaked, the pages
Crumbled. There I discovered

The angels were once as plentiful
As species of flies.
The sky at dusk
Used to be thick with them.
You had to wave both arms
Just to keep them away.

Now the sun is shining
Through the tall windows.
The library is a quiet place.
Angels and gods huddled
In dark unopened books.
The great secret lies
On some shelf Miss Jones
Passes every day on her rounds.

She's very tall, so she keeps
Her head tipped as if listening.
The books are whispering.
I hear nothing, but she does.

Charles Simic

THE COLD HEAVEN
SUDDENLY I saw the cold & rook-delighting heaven
That seemed as though ice burned & was but the more ice,
And thereupon imagination & heart were driven
So wild that every thought of that & this
Vanished, & left but memories, that should be out of season
With the hot blood of youth, of love crossed long ago;
And I took all the blame out of all sense & reason,
Until I cried & trembled & rocked to & fro,
Riddled with light. Ah! when the ghost begins to quicken,
Confusion of the death-bed over, is it sent
Out naked on the roads, as the books say, & stricken
By the injustice of the skies for punishment?

William Butler Yeats (1912)

Fishing on the Susquehanna In July

I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna
or on any river for that matter
to be perfectly honest.

Not in July or any month
have I had the pleasure--if it is a pleasure--
of fishing on the Susquehanna.

I am more likely to be found
in a quiet room like this one--
a painting of a woman on the wall,

a bowl of tangerines on the table--
trying to manufacture the sensation
of fishing on the Susquehanna.

There is little doubt
that others have been fishing
on the Susquehanna,

rowing upstream in a wooden boat,
sliding the oars under the water
then raising them to drip in the light.

But the nearest I have ever come to
fishing on the Susquehanna
was one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia,

when I balanced a little egg of time
in front of a painting
in which that river curled around a bend

under a blue cloud-ruffled sky,
dense trees along the banks,
and a fellow with a red bandana

sitting in a small, green
flat-bottom boat
holding the thin whip of a pole.

That is something I am unlikely
ever to do, I remember
saying to myself and the person next to me.

Then I blinked and moved on
to other American scenes
of haystacks, water whitening over rocks,

even one of a brown hare
who seemed so wired with alertness
I imagined him springing right out of the frame.

Billy Collins

Spent the day yesterday working the arts and crafts tent at a fishing event in Riverside park. Lots of kids learning how to fish and whatnot. Really beautiful new part of the park up in the 130s next to the Fairway. (Seriously Fairway is the best grocery store in the world - everyone needs to go.)

The Water's Chant

Seven years ago I went into
the High Sierras stunned by the desire
to die. For hours I stared into a clear
mountain stream that fell down
over speckled rocks, and then I
closed my eyes and prayed that when
I opened them I would be gone
and somewhere a purple and golden
thistle would overflow with light.
I had not prayed since I was a child
and at first I felt foolish saying
the name of God, and then it became
another word. All the while
I could hear the water's chant
below my voice. At last I opened
my eyes to the same place, my hands
cupped and I drank long from
the stream, and then turned for home
not even stopping to find the thistle
that blazed by my path.
Since then
I have gone home to the city
of my birth and found it gone,
a gray and treeless one now in its place.
The one house I loved the most
simply missing in a row of houses,
the park where I napped on summer days
fenced and locked, the great shop
where we forged, a plane of rubble,
the old hurt faces turned away.
My brother was with me, thickened
by the years, but still my brother,
and when we embraced I felt the rough
cheek and his hand upon my back tapping
as though to tell me, I know! I know!
brother, I know!
Here in California
a new day begins. Full dull clouds ride
in from the sea, and this dry valley
calls out for rain. My brother has
risen hours ago and hobbled to the shower
and gone out into the city of death
to trade his life for nothing because
this is the world. I could pray now,
but not to die, for that will come one
day or another. I could pray for
his bad leg or my son John whose luck
is rotten, or for four new teeth, but
instead I watch my eucalyptus,
the giant in my front yard, bucking
and swaying in the wind and hear its
tidal roar. In the strange new light
the leaves overflow purple and gold,
and a fiery dust showers into the day.

Philip Levine

Water without clouds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxYe3kngXtg

After Germany dismissed England I went for a cruise along the St. Claire River passing through some oldish towns including Algonac just beating some seriously stormy weather just missing a tornado that careered along the same path up towards Port Huron just across from Sarnia, Ontario just joined, well not just joined by the Blue Water Bridge only just avoiding possible damage to life & limb.
Very warm and very very humid today in the Metro. Detroit area. Not my favorite weather, my system can't take the heat & humidity that it once could. I used to love to play tennis in the heat of summer. Trying to track down my younger brothers topspin groundstrokes he took up tennis late and in no time passed me, without much toil, and went on to become a top-notch player. He got so good that he tried his act in Europe without much success though. When you get to the upper ranks of tennis even unranked players are incredibly good. He ended up marrying a girl from the Netherlands, came back to California, raised 3 great daughters. We coach basketball in Ca. and have had much success over the years winning the State Championship once and made the State Final Four more times than I care to remember.
Oh well did I say the weather was stormy today.

Peter's head is into water, on the river and as humidity--even threw in the Netherlands, which is built on water--and that's apropos since tomorrow is the first day of Water Appreciation Week, though he couldn't help but veer toward sports, I noticed.

Speaking of which, the Tour de France starts July 3rd. I tried to enter a Nature team in that competition but was too late, and they don't want a bunch of elders wheezing up inclines when they get to the Alps and the Pyrenees.

We'll hear from Lisa, who lives on a great lake, and post pictures from the Maine coast to (hopefully) the Deschutes in Or-e-gun. They're hemmed in by the stuff in Florida, have seen it rolling toward the beaches of southern California, are familiar with it in Shelialand (according to my map), as well as in Colorado, Arkansas (why else would a heron have been there?), northern Ohio, Taiwan ... everywhere in fact where sentient creatures live. And if you're not near water, or are allergic to it, perhaps you've read about it, in a book.

Water of Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPsxEGewsoU
Does Roger Waters qualify?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHWszLC8CNE
Last but not least
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EpcpNRVqXA

>141 geneg: Gene, yes it is a very big deal - not so much that she's a woman (though that makes it a historic occasion), as that, well, imagine if Joe Biden kicked out Obama and took over, with the support of the party. It's like that. Except it happened in Australia, so only Australians care about it.

And yep, the governor general is largely a ceremonial position, as is the Queen.

So, um, water. Trivial fact - in the Oz national anthem, we sing about the fact that "our land is girt by sea".

ETA: My politics is not all it should be, so no doubt the above is an oversimplification.

>141 geneg: (geneg)

Re photo of aboriginal: many aboriginals in different countries see photographing as patronizing or intrusive, something like the topless women in Africa do.

Re couple having sex in public: perhaps they were high, or just pulling a practical joke. Besides, why is it objectionable for couples to copulate in public? Animals do and Homo Sapiens is also an animal. I'm sure Neanderthal Man did it.

>163 janemarieprice: (janepriceestrada)

Though I'm not an architect, I share your goals 1,2, and 3, in your About Me in your profile.

I'm very interested in architecture, esp. Ancient and Medieval. Modern Bauhaus leaves me with mixed feelings.

Do you see any similarity between architecture and sculpture?

Officially beginning Water Appreciation Week, I thought I would say a word or two about "my" Great Lake. Many people think of these lakes as calm, benign bodies of water. Prior to sailing in the Chicago to Mackinac Island race a few years back, Ted Turner was widely quoted as referring to Lake Michigan as a "mill pond" and sarcastically stated "Yeah, I'm really scared" when warned of the fickle nature of our water. During the race that year, the fleet hit some violent storms, and he retracted everything he had said. Lake Michigan is really an inland sea. At its narrowest it is about 60 miles wide. At the widest about 150. But it is over 300 miles long, and a good wind can easily cause waves in the 15 to 20 foot range. And, for reasons I do not understand, those are not "swells". We lovingly refer to it as "Lake Michigan chop"

On the other hand nothing beats being on the lake on a calm day when the water is flat and one can keep going for quite a long time without seeing another boat. And, yes, when cruising on Lake Michigan one gets that "ocean feeling"--that is for long periods of time the horizon all around is water with no land in sight. Life hardly gets better than that!

It doesn't happen that often, but when it does, I love being out on the water. Life seems so simple then, the little people and houses along the shoreline, everything hunky-dory. It would be something else not seeing any land at all, but I think that would be swell too since I always have a sense of where I am, spatially, geographically (if not who I am), and on the rare occasions when I'm genuinely lost, I feel liberated. I imagine I'd feel lost out there, in the middle of Lake Michigan. Not at a loss, psychologically, just lost.

On second thought, I have been out of land's sight on the water: on a ship from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Nova Scotia; on a whale watch boat, several times, out of Provincetown; and on the Channel ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg.

But the Nova Scotia boat was jammed with people, mainly eating nonstop at the grotesque buffet. The whale watch boat was crowded too, and had a sense of camaraderie as we all scanned the water's surface, looking for dolphins and whales. And the ferry was awash with Englishers and their children, "on holiday," who have all but colonized that part of Normandy and adjacent Brittany. At no time did I feel lost.

PETER QUINCE AT THE CLAVIER
1
Just as my fingers on these keys
Make music, so the selfsame sounds
On my spirit make a music, too
Music os feeling, then, not sound;
And thus it is that what I feel,
Here in this room, desiring you,

Thinking of your blue-shadowed silk,
In music. It is like the strain
Waked in the elders by Susanna.

Of a green evening, clear and warm,
She bathed in her still garden, while
The red-eyed elders watching, felt

The basses of their beings throb
In witching chords, and their thin blood
Pulse pizzicati of Hosanna.

II
In the green water, clear and warm,
Susanna lay.
She searched
The touch of springs,
And found
Concealed imaginings.
She sighed,
For so much melody.

Upon the bank she stood
In the cool
Of spent emotions,
She felt, among the leaves,
The dew
Of old devotions.

She walked upon the grass,
Still quavering.
The winds were like her maids,
On timid feet,
Fetching her woven scarves,
Yet wavering.
A breath upon her hand
Muted the night.
She turned -
A cymbal crashed,
And roaring horns.

III
Soon, with a noise like tamborines,
Came her attendant Byzantines.

They wondered why Susanna cried
Against the elders by her side;

And as they whispered, the refrain
Was like a willow swept by rain.

Anon, their lamps' uplifted flame
Revealed Susanna and her shame.

And then, the simpering Byzantines
Fled, with a noise like tamborines.

IV
Beauty is momentary in the mind -
The fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal.

The body dies; the bodies beauty lives.
So evenings die, in their green going,
A wave, interminably flowing.
So gardens die, their meek breath scenting
The cowl of winter, done repenting.
So maidens die, to the auroral
Celebrations of a maiden's choral.

Susanna's music touched the bawdy strings
Of those white elders; but, escaping,
Left only Death's ironic scraping.
Now, in its immortality, it plays
On the clear viol of her memory,
And makes a constant sacrament of praise.

Wallace Stevens (1915)

>170 bookmonk8888:, The story of the couple in the restaurant window, while true, was just a funny story. There was not meant to be any judgment at all. As far as photographing the aboriginal gentleman, I was a most unsophisticated but not thoughtless 26 year old. I aimed my camera, he said no, I put the camera down and went on about my business. I was not being patronizing. He was an interesting subject.

When I was nine my father was stationed on Guam, a small island at the southern end of the Marianas chain which includes Tinian (home base of the "Enola Gay") and Saipan (one of the deadliest naval battles of WWII), and is one of the most important military bases in the Western Pacific, just 13 deg N of the Equator, south of Japan and north of Australia, for what turned out to be three years. In 1954 when my mother and I went to join him there was only one way for us to make the trip, by water. We sailed for 11 days. We visited Oahu, Hawaii, and stopped again at Kwajalein Atoll to deliver goods. We avoided rough seas and the trip, after the first night or two was very pleasant. The thing I remember most was at night when the ship was showing few lights, if one stood at the rail at the stern one could see a trail of fluorescent light for miles astern, glowing plankton stirred up by the props. Occasionally, one would see another ship steaming somewhere with its own load of hopes and dreams. The calm ocean is undoubtedly the most romantic place on earth. Its charms are visceral. I didn't notice the stars. I had just four months earlier left West Virginia which was much darker than the sea at night, so stars were no big deal. Five years later they would become very important to me. It's been years since I've seen the Milky Way.

Since then I've sailed back from Guam to the US and sailed to England on the Queen Mary, via La Havre. I was telling my wife the other night that if I was rich as Croesus (or just Bill Gates), I would live on an ocean going yacht and spend most of my time in International Waters.

Water.

The calm ocean is undoubtedly the most romantic place on earth. Its charms are visceral.

Yes, Gene, absolutely. Years ago my husband talked about moving to Arizona. Hearing that thought was like a punch in the gut--I cannot imagine being so far from a great body of water. Lake Powell does not count!

Pietro--you just need some basic navigation skills, a compass and a chart. You are not lost.

Funny you should mention that, Lisa, because I was going to qualify that notion about being lost and then didn't because, frankly, I had a better ending for that entry, and I am a writer, after all.

But here it is: I love to drive, to explore back roads, to look for hidden places. And once in a while I'm in the car with someone who says, "We're lost."

To which I reply something like: "How can we be lost? What does it mean to be lost? We're on the earth. If we keep going we'll get somewhere ... as long as we don't run out of gas first."

#172
YES! Our great lakes are great. In the winter I can look ou my window & see Sandusky Bay, an arm of Lake Erie. In the summer, when the trees are full of leaves, I have to walk out to the road to see water.
Lake Erie had a battle fought on it - the "Battle of Lake Erie" (which sounds appropriate) The American fleet under the command of Admiral Oliver Hazzard Perry defeated the British who had come down from Canada off of the Bass Islands, by the town
of Put-In-Bay, now a famous island resort.
Later a monument was built, dedicated to international peace between the US & Canada.

Our family has had a variety of boats, now the boys all have their own boats. I regret to say that I find fishing boring, I bring along a good book & assist when needed. But it's been a long time since Hubby & me were out on the bay. When it froze, there was always ice fishing, another sport I never found interesting. But fried perch fresh from the icy cold water - yes!
I will have to go down to the beach & wish it a happy Water Appreciation Week.

Warm day but not so humid. Swirling breezes and majestic cumulus clouds. There's a redwing blackbird out there warbling his wood-notes wild but I won't complain.

Have not seen our heron lately, however, his pond has been of some use. With almost 3 weeks without rain we dropped a sump pump into it and it is going uphill to the garden. What the plants do not drink will end up returning as our stock pond is the low point of the local mini landscape. It is 91F as I write this and that is cool for the last few days.

Ah the sea !

Geneg's post reminds me that nowhere can you see the milky way as when you are on deck of a sailing boat in the middle of the ocean.

It is like ... WoW...

In the African Savana too, it can be amazing...or any place without light polution - no much left though -

A snippet from "Digging Deeper":

He took a seat, squeezing in, and within seconds someone asked him what he did; a typical question, the kind New Yorkers always ask each other, which at the Laskers' often meant: What are you working on? I was tensely alert, felt protective, projected myself into his discomfort, which in fact was mine, anticipating what he might say. I hoped it wouldn't be "seeking something more than knowledge."

But Gary was a sociable sort, and easily replied that he wasn't doing anything at the moment but had recently been a fisherman.

Which captured everyone's attention. Where did he fish? someone asked, and he described the channel in the bay off Juneau, he and his partner in their small boat, beneath the looming decks of larger, commercial boats that went out in fleets and brought their catches to the filleting sheds …

This elicited even more questions, exacerbating my nervousness, until, to divert attention from him, I inserted myself, said the first fish thing that came to mind, about catching one at Montauk as a boy and how it lay there in the sand, flapping around, then blew up to twice its size, scaring me away.

"A blowfish," someone said, nodding. "I caught one too, in Rockaway."

"They're poisonous," someone else said. "You have to cook them just right."

"To the Japanese, they're a delicacy … "

And by then Gary was indeed off the hook, receding into the background as talk moved on to other things …

>182 Macumbeira: (Macumbeira)

I say it from the African Savana. Awesome.

Posting for Piero for Water Appreciation Week:

Stream in Woodstock, New York

>165 Porius:

Wow!

On the way home from the Umpquah valley today, we came over the Willamette Pass for a change of scenery. This is one of my favorite drives. You pass Dexter Lake above Eugene and follow the Willamette River up to Oakridge and over the pass. Then you see Diamond Peak and Odell Lake. At the top of the pass is an observation point for Salt Creek Falls which is the 2nd highest falls in Oregon after Multnomah Falls) and the most powerful falls in southern Oregon. Papa wasn't up for the walk to the better viewpoint facing the falls, but I did take him down to the top of the falls:



It takes 4 seconds for water to fall the 286 feet to the creek below



Salt Creek is a tributary of the middle fork of the Willamette River which ultimately ends in North PDX



It has an average yearly flow of 50,000 gallons per minute



I love my state! ;-) Happy water appreciation week!

Wow again. One of my favorite things to do is to lie down by a running river or brook and let the sound elevate me to the heavens.

Oh yeah! And tent camping next to a river is the best. Nothin' like waking up to that sound.

Tani,

I almost felt like I was looking at photos of Iguacu Falls! Magnificent.

Pietro--Water and "Digging Deeper"! Even out of context this book sounds like it is going to be great.

Tonight or tomorrow getting back to you all on some river trips with lots of information that you never knew you wanted to know.

J.D. Souther is one of those good singer-songwriters who labored under the radar. The Dore things are extraordinary, aren't they?

What an evening. Dry air. Crystal clear. Everything as green as Wilde's carnation, well maybe not that green. As green as Gore's, Al Gore's dreams. Green as that dupe that fought in Aleppo once. You get the idea.
Haley Barber is being hoist by his own petard. You can't have your cake and eat it, fatboy, the most insincere fatboy. I'm so disgusted with politicians including our make-us-feel-good-guy-in-chief. At this point their self-interest is so transparent it's beyond the pale. I simply want to report the delightful weather conditions and there they are. Second and third stringers, presidents of the studentbody types, honor-rollers, brown-noses, sycophants, coney-catchers. The senate is filled with pelfingwindbags, the congress with pest-control magistrates the likes of that bounder from Sugarland, Texas - god, I could go on but what's the point?

>190 LisaCurcio:

I have the same problem as you describe in the 3rd paragraph in About Me on your Profile. So many books, so little time. Don't just read good books, read only the best.

I once posted a picture of sunrise on the Illinois River at Beardstown, Illinois. I have a few other pictures of times on the rivers, and will get them posted later. Here, however, is a little bit of the more than you wanted to know.

It was about ten years ago that we first brought a boat from Chicago to Green Turtle Bay Marina in Grand Rivers, Kentucky. The route is Lake Michigan to either the Chicago River or the Calumet River (depending on what your lowest bridge clearance is) to the Chicago Shipping and Sanitary Canal to the Illinois River to the Mississippi River to the Ohio River to either the Tennessee River or the Cumberland River (depending on how long the wait is at the Kentucky Lock) to Green Turtle Bay. Since then we have made the trip down (and back) a few times. We also brought the boat we presently own from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Chicago. I might bore you with that later this week.

The thing that amazed me most was the amount of commercial traffic on the rivers in this part of the world. A whole heck of a lot of grain, coal and gas(not gasoline--gas) and other commodities is transported by barge. Water should be appreciated as an integral part of the economy of the U.S.

These things are transported by barge. A barge (forgive me if you know this) is a flat bottomed vessel that has no propulsion of its own and is typically 195 feet long and 35 feet wide. When full they draw about nine feet. Barges usually travel in groups--as in they tie together two or three or four across and three or four or five or six long and they are all moved by what is commonly called a "tow" but what is really a "pusher". They are big, they move faster than you would think, it takes them a really long time to stop once they get moving, and it is a good idea to stay out of their way. They run day and night and their "skippers" are highly skilled and generally friendly so long as you don't cause them problems on the river. More than once a commercial skipper has warned me about problems ahead that made the trip a little safer. Of course, I had to learn to understand them first! More about that later.

>192 bookmonk8888:, Mr. Monk (my husband loves that program) I wish I could be so discriminating. I am one of those people who reads cereal boxes for lack of something else. Hid under the covers with a flashlight to read. Could not hear someone calling me when I was reading until the book was removed from my hand. I frankly think that the answer would be to be independently wealthy so I could spend all of my time reading while on a boat. Not happening, however, so I do my best with what I have. And I could read more if I didn't spend so much free time on LT!

On the Columbia River, there is a lot of barge traffic. Though I have not seen anything as wide as what you describe, Lisa. Wow. We call our 'pushers' Tug Boats. My great-grandfather immigrated from Nordland, Norway as a commercial salmon fisherman in 1906 and settled on Puget Island on the lower Columbia. Unfortunately, he and two of my great uncles were drowned in fishing and swimming accidents. Portions of our family ran the ferry between Westport, Oregon and the island for generations.

I am going on a picnic in the woods with two of my best friends from high school tomorrow and will probably end up at Wickiup Reservoir about 4 miles from my home. Which touts some of the best fishing in the state. Brownies, Rainbows, Brookies, Kokanee Salmon, and Mountain Whitefish. I'm gonna have to acquire a new pole, I think. It has been far too long since my last fishing excursion. Obviously, it is in my blood. ;-)

>194 LisaCurcio: (LisaCurcio)

As a kid I loved to climb a tree and read a book there. I lived in a farm and my father had difficulty finding me in order to get me do some farm work. He didn't read much and considered the sedentary life lazy and a waste of time. Fortunately, my mother had a different attitude and bought me books frequently. I think she was proud of her genius son :)

I do miss the farm now for all it's interesting flora and fauna.

My best wishes to you to win a lottery so you can become independently wealthy.

Haha, Lisa! Me too... re: flashlights and the removing of the book thing. Ironically, I also have that problem when I am on LT. :-/

My wife and I call it the curse of the gift of reading.

171 - I think there's a good bit of dailog between architecture and sculpture. I've know many architects who sculpt as well and a few sculpters who crossed over into architecture or furniture design.

So water...I have always lived near water and really can't image not being within walking distance. My hometown is peppered with bayous, canals, and various other bodies of water. My parents house is right next to the Intracoastal Canal which is a major shipping channel. Lots and lots of barges passing by (thanks Lisa for bringing this up...a very interesting aspect of water).

In weather related news it is hot, hot, hot here today. Electric company called to say shut down all unnecessary appliances because we are having service problems in our area.

>199 janemarieprice:
And, of course, there's a lot of artistic creativity in a lot of architecture.

Wow, what a great start to Water Appreciation week! (I have finally caught up on the thread)

I am privileged to be able to see the milky way every night where I live. There is nothing quite as inspiring as a billion stars from your deck every night. (Well, when mama nature lets up, that is)

Lisa, where is Iguacu Falls?

The Milky Way. Maybe the most poetic name for anything in Nature, I think.

>203 Porius:

Naw. Big Bang is better. And Quarks.

>204 bookmonk8888: - that's the Dr Seuss kind of poetry.

>205 ChocolateMuse:

Love Dr. Seuss. So poetic! And kids agree :)

> 198 The curse of the gift of reading. What a great phrase. When combined with the youthful foolishness that lead to several speed reading courses it creates a never ending search to keep the "To Be Read" stack full.

Tani, Iguacu Falls is on the border between Brazil and Argentina right at the pointy bottom of Paraguay. A really beautiful part of the world, and there is a lot of water there.

Gene, yes, the curse of the gift of reading--how right you are. Paul, I dunno. LT has introduced me to so many books I had never heard of or convinced me to read so many books I had heard of but did not think I wanted to read that I don't have to search to keep the "To Be Read" stack full. I have to search for space in which to put the "To Be Read" stacks!

>186 bookmonk8888:. Thanks for posting my local stream, Tani, and for your own fantastic photos. The last two can be viewed as gorgeous abstractions, or so I saw them this morning before I had my coffee and knew what I was looking at.

>193 LisaCurcio:. The thing that amazed me most was the amount of commercial traffic on the rivers in this part of the world. I was amazed too, as a reader a few years ago when I came upon a piece in The New Yorker by John McPhee, who spent some time on one of those boats you referred to, Lisa, plying I don't know which rivers, and then eventually the Mississippi. McPhee is good at that kind of stuff; fishing too, which leads me to ...

>195 highdesertlady:. ... kokanee. I caught maybe ten fish in my life. In addition to the blowfish at Montauk on Long Island in #183, I caught about ten mackerel in ten minutes on the Long Island Sound, that apparently were so afraid of the ravenous bluefish working their way up the coast, eating everything in their way, that the oily things practically jumped into the boat to get out of the water ... and a I caught a cute little kokanee on Priest Lake in the panhandle of Idaho. Actually ate that one.

>196 bookmonk8888:. A farm? Really? This is a line, or roughly similar to one, in my psychedelic memoir, when someone brought it up and I was smitten by the idea of it ... though in fact I spent boyish summer weeks on a farm in New Hampshire, where my family stayed in an old socialist rooming house. The smell of hay in the barn is a sweet memory.

>199 janemarieprice:. A fantasy of mine, to live on the Intracoastal Waterway and watch the boats go by. Alas, you can't do everything and live everywhere, and also, I don't know where I could do it without leaving the the mountains behind. I was in Florida for a week once and couldn't get over the sense that something was missing.

#209 Now that you mention it, Piero... They really do look like abstractions! I have been trying to find the picture of me as a kid with the dozen or so trout that I caught and cleaned (much to Mama's dismay, the cleaning part anyway because I was teasing her with the guts) but have been unsuccessful. Being raised with 2 boys, it was a way to keep up with my older brothers and alas, I was and probably still am a tomboy. But don't tell Papa, 'cause he makes me do boy stuff around the house all the time and I am having a difficult time convincing him that I am a girl.

#208 Lisa, looking at Iguacu Falls on the google images... Wow. Makes our little Salt Creek look like a trickle! ;-)

For Piero

Monhegan Island, off the coast of Maine

Gotta scoot to meet the besties for our picnic! Will be back to post of our Wickiup adventure later!

My favorite river in the world is the Rogue River in southern Oregon. As an 8th grader I took a school field trip on a jet boat from Agness to Gold Beach down the rapids of the Rogue. Amazing and one of the highlights of my youth.

I went to the park where the Columbia and Willamette meet, Tani, a couple of weekends ago, it's called "Kelly Point Park". When C. recuperates we plan to go canoeing in the slough.

As you guys may already know I work for the Portland Housing Bureau. Portland's Water Bureau is one of my favorite government institutions (don't let C hear that, he hates getting those huge water bills, but most of the costs are actually from the sewer bureau). They are in charge of Bull Run water. We don't treat our water because we don't need to. Every year they send out a water quality report to Pdx. citizens showing that the water quality is still high. Glad they don't bottle it though. We need it to continue to get straight to our taps, "From Forest to Faucet" as the Water Bureau's slogan goes.

Oregon Public Broadcasting did a great show on Bull Run interviewing many interesting people who contributed to our great tradition of wonderful clean untreated water.
http://www.opb.org/programs/oregonexperience/programs/25-Bull-Run

People in New York City also drink unfiltered water, conveyed mainly by gravity through aqueducts and tunnels from the city's reservoir system in Catskill Mountain counties. It comes to 1.4 billion gallons a day to 9 million people in the city and Westchester, a suburban country north of NYC.

But up here, where the water comes from, people bear grievances against New York City and its reservoir system that goes back generations:

http://bearsystems.com/losttowns/lost.html

Good show, Anna! Bull Run is the best in the West!

I will post my Rogue experience later... I was 15 and we floated from Galice to Agnes.

Been to Kelly Point Many times!

Kayaking the Kern River.

Camped along the Kern River many times. It's one of the steepest - and deadliest - rivers in the States, flowing south out of the High Sierra. Deceptively swift waters, luring inner-tubers and the inexperienced to an early demise.

The Kern County Sheriff's office keeps an (in)famous, regularly updated tally of Kern River deaths since 1968. Tally was up to 248 as of late last year.

209 - It was a wonderful place to grow up. Here's a picture (not mine, thank you internet):



and the one of the old bridges in town:



214 - Another note on NYC water. There is a huge project underway, digging another water tunnel to service the city. Currently, there is only one tunnel serving Manhattan which poses quite a big threat if taken out.

You only camped, right? That looks scary!

>217 janemarieprice: Jane, New Orleans? I have not been there on the boat, never having gotten that far west on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. But that looks like a typical part of the waterway. Lots of barges laid up on the side--probably picking up or dropping off cargo.

And the bridge looks like a railroad bridge in the up position. Is it?

219 - It's actually my small hometown just southwest of NO (about an hour driving). The canal looks like that for quite a ways until you get into some of the Texas scrub land. And, yes, it is a railroad bridge, "the old railroad bridge," as it's called.

ETA: Once you get a bit out of town it's less barges and more shrimp boats, but still a similar feeling. A bit too flat for you, Peter, yes?

Room temperature day here in the flatlands. In McPhee's ANNALS OF A FORMER WORLD he was non-plussed with I-80 through the Mid-West so called, he could pass us with nary a glance. I-80 doesn't pass through our Great Lake State. Wouldn't have mattered. We don't have many outcroppings worth the great Naturalists' (and much else) notice.

>220 janemarieprice:. On my own aesthetic taste: flat vs. hilly: So far as I know, if you want to be next to water on the East Coast, or the Midwest, or the South--though I admit I don't know the South that well--unless you're perched by a river, you have to forgo hills and mountains. I do like the visual feel of Pittsburgh, for instance, with its hills and the two rivers snaking through. The West Coast, on the other hand, has hilly cities perched over bays and the ocean, and I like that a lot. So, yeah, your bayou is probably too flat for me, but that wouldn't keep me from appreciating its particular je ne sais quoi, nor would I turn down a free ticket to visit Amsterdam, Venice, or Copenhagen.

And I'm a great admirer of bridges. I should probably add one or two books to my library. Any suggestions?

It is 331 miles from Chicago to the Mississippi River by way of the waterways mentioned above. The Chicago River and Calumet River run through industrial areas and the barge traffic is smaller--partly because there is no room for the big ones. The Sanitary and Shipping Canal is a man made connection between those rivers and the Illinois River. It begins below the Lockport lock and dam, which is just above Joliet, Illinois.

Here is a picture I took of a friend's boat inside the Lockport lock as we were heading south in October, 2007. The boat is 52 feet long. The water level drops approximately 80 feet from the top to the bottom, and I think this picture is about half way down.



Rivers long enough to carry commercial traffic have their levels regulated by a series of locks and dams. There are eight locks between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi. My memory is that Lockport is the biggest drop in the group. The smallest is on either the Calumet or the Chicago which is only about 1 to 2 feet. The others vary.

Commercial traffic always has priority at the locks, and very seldom can a pleasure craft go into a lock with commercial traffic. River travel can be very slow because of the barges and the locks. We only run our boat at about 10 miles per hour, but most of the time it would not matter if we wanted to go faster because it usually means hurry up (and burn a whole lot of fuel) and wait.

Communication on the river between vessels and between vessels and the lockmasters is via radio. Part of managing the trip is to pay close attention to the conversations between the tow skippers and the lockmasters to see who expects to be where when. Then, when one gets within a mile or so of a lock, one calls on the radio to see what the status of locking through will be. The worst news is when a lock has a "double red flag" going up or down. It is amazing to watch, but if that happens you can figure on dropping anchor somewhere near the lock and getting out the cards because it could be two to three hours waiting.
The reason? The locks are only 600 feet long and 110 feet wide. Two barge lengths and a pusher will fill the length of the lock. Three barge widths will fill the width of the lock. Any more than two by three means the pusher pushes the front part of his load into the lock, the barges are secured to floating devices in the walls that are called bollards, the barges are disconnected, the pusher backs out alone or with some of the barges still attached, the water level is lowered or raised, the barges without a method of propulsion are winched out, the lock level is raised or lowered to go back to get the pusher and anything else left behind, they go in, get secured, go up or down and then move out and reconnect.

You guys want to hear any more about river travel?

The subject is water, Lisa; this is the week to strut your stuff.

Pour it on.

>225 Porius: In your Profile page:

"a gruelling trip over a sloppy mile and a half in which old trollope".

Well, at least, not a trollop.

You've a sharp eye for horseflesh bookmonk8888. Or you're damning me with faint praise. I wish that I could say I knew what you were getting at?

Before we continue down the rivers, a break for a few sailboat race photos. (Maybe we will hear from Mac!) I am not a sailor. I am far too lazy and uncoordinated to do that. I do appreciate the sport (oops, wrong thread?), however, and sometimes we are asked to be a start boat for races. That means we take race committee folks on our boat, they figure out based on wind where the race should start and we drop an anchor and relax while they signal the races. The start line is an imaginary line from our boat, as is the finish line. They have not yet learned to draw lines on the water for some reason despite all of the modern technology we have.

So here is a picture of the start of one race about two years ago:



Here are a bunch of boats going every which way:



And here is a lovely finish:



I don't remember which one was the winner. As you can see, it was really close. Those colored sails are called spinnakers, and they are only used when the wind is behind the boat. Fun to watch. From what I hear from my sailing friends, sometimes not so much fun to manage. It takes skill since if they turn and lose the wind, the spinnaker flops and sometimes ends up in the water which slows them down a lot and can also be dangerous.

Next stop, probably the Illinois Riverdock Restaurant at mile 21 on the Illinois River for some pie! Then on to Ole Muddy.

>227 Porius: (Porius)

My sincere apologies for offending you, Prious. It's my weird sense of humor that sometimes crosses barriers.

Great stuff everybody.

Jane, has your hometown been hit hard by the BP disaster?

218> Naw, no kayaking on the Kern...yet! My skill level requires much more placid waters, such as in a marina or lake.

Wish I could find some pictures from a fun outing my family had at Slide Rock, just north of Sedona, AZ, featuring ridiculously long natural water slides over water polished red rock...

Not offended at all. Just couldn't nose out your meaning. I meant by that bit that in the race to be my favorite author, I don't really have a favorite author, by the way, old Anthony Trollope wins by a nose over Charles Dickens. Please don't feel too bad. I make somewhat of a fool of myself everyday here, of course I don't mean to suggest that you looked foolish, but I get much amusement by doing so - looking foolish, ie.
Gosh, I've had more run-ins, and near run-ins with voters whose profile names start with book. Oh, and that little dust-up with the erstwhile naughty-hottie. No hard feelings bookmonk8888. My question to you is 8888 what?

Slide Rock, Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona....Good times!

I enjoyed that old highway that corkscrews down to Oak Creek Canyon from Flagstaff, AZ. Bluest of blue skies and reddest of red rocks.

>231 Porius: (Porius)

You are very gracious. I appreciate your response. Re 8888: the name Bookmonk was already taken so I used numbers easy to remember.

It was a silly joke: I meant ate, ate, ate, ate, - what? Not very funny I guess.

Well, it's rather Wodehousian.

Choc, if you are responding to #236, I don't ate that. Though not too many drop the haitches in Wodehouse. Does George Wellbeloved, I cant recall at the moment.

I was responding to yours, Porius. I'm pretty sure Wellbeloved does drop his haitches, and doesn't Elsie Bean as well?

222 - Your thoughts on flat vs. hilly are interesting. I was pretty surprised that Seattle was hilly because I always assume anything on the water is flat. :) Bridges...hmm...I will have to think on that, but there are lots of good books out on Santiago Calatrava who designs some of the more beautiful bridges, in my opinion.

223 - I am fascinated by locks and have never had the pleasure of driving through one. One day, perhaps.

230 - Unfortunately, my hometown is not in a good position regarding the BP crap. Grand Isle, which was the first place oil started washing up is directly south in the same parish. Oil keeps getting closer every day. It's washed up in some of the outlying communities. My parents have been formulating an emergency plan which basically involves moving as soon as the oil comes. I've been trying to avoid all coverage because it depresses me.

So I've been thinking about river crossings. There is an interesting Flickr group called The Great Mississippi River Bridge Project dedicated to photographing all of the Mississippi's crossings. I was talking to someone today who was saying that they had only been west of the Mississippi once. I found this interesting - in the US there is a lot of history and culture about crossing the Mighty Mississip'. I've probably crossed back and forth thousands of times.

Well he's Emsworth's pig man, I can't imagine a pig man with a cut glass accent. Elsie Bean: a small, sturdy girl of resolute appearance with blue eyes and retrousse nose, housemaid at Ashenden Manor in UD48. A native of Bottleton East, London; has a brother Bert, in jail for sloshing a slop on the napper with a blunt instrument. She can be counted upon to drop her haitches.
GCW, broken nose & halibut mouthed has something of the Autolykus in him. It will take somewhat more looking into.

> 228

Nice pics. The arrival with four in a line with spinnaker up is indeed an exceptional sight.

Here is a cool picture of the "moth" - class. Because of foils the boats lift out of the water. Funny to see, tricky to sail

http://www.voilesetvoiliers.com/items/remote_view/3138#xtor=EPR-2-news-30-06-201...lien

>239 janemarieprice: (janepricesetrada)

I am fascinated by locks and have never had the pleasure of driving through one. One day perhaps.

If I were you, I wouldn't drive through one. I'd take a boat or barge :)

I grew up (if I ever grew up!) near the sea in Ireland and saw a lot of ships. We had a most beautiful view of the Atlantic off the southern coast -- County Cork. I saw the "American Liners" e.g. the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary as they skirted the coast on their way to America.

I later lived right next to the Welland Canal and was absolutely fascinated at the barges that went through, esp. the extremely large ones. Unfortunately, some of the sailors would throw a bag of drugs to someone waiting there.
My first experience was sitting on a veranda with a lot of trees in front of me. I suddenly saw a huge boat moving through the trees. I thought I was hallucinating until I remembered the canal was there.
The locks, of course, were built to bypass the Niagara Falls and extend the St. Lawrence Seaway.

So. Over to paddle steamers for a minute. According to Wikipedia, Australia's Murray River has the largest fleet in the world.

Here's a neat bridge--an aqueduct, actually, built by the Romans--that I've visited several times over the years. The first time, the car was driven right up to it and there was no one about, or perhaps only a few people. The second time, maybe ten years later, a bunch of cars were parked and twenty or thirty people were ambling across and around it. The last time, maybe five years ago, I had to park in a sprawling lot, crowded with cars; walk past a colony of plateglass buildings with exhibit rooms, a cafeteria, and the admissions kiosk, pay to move; then walked about a quarter mile to the the site itself, which was swarming with hundreds of people.

The Pont du Gard, not far from Avignon France:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Pont_du_gard_panoramique.jpg

http://www.funnytheworld.com/2009/Jun/PontDuGard.gif

Copy, it is indeed a sorry evolution but we have to protect all these masterpieces or the hordes of tourists who would literally destroy it.

But the Romans had a superior crowd of engineers, had they not ?

For Piero

Dock in Kittery Maine

>246 Macumbeira:. You're right about that, Mac, both protecting the Pont du Gard and the marvel of engineering that it represents. And since you asked a while ago, I should note that I finally did mow the lawn, and, apropos our water motif, when I was done plowing through the foor and a half high stalks, i was soaking wet.

The Lord said : "work on the land and thou shall be blessed"

Hummph! (*$@#$&^(*) satellite internet... can't... load... photos...

Back in the mid-'60's I was, for a summer a deck hand and eventually Captain of a tourist mule-drawn barge run by the National Park Service on the C&O Canal in Washington D. C. The trip started at K Street at lock number three. We would lock the boat up at lock number four, about fifty feet from lock number three, and then let the mule drag us to lock number five, about four miles up the canal, turn around and let the mule take us back to lock number four, lock down, and dock. It was all a lot of fun.

I have lots of stories associated with that job. It was most interesting.

As Porius put it yesterday: pour it on.

Well, guess who forgot their phone yesterday? Moi... But I did have a great time!

The Rogue River hmmm... where to start?

Let's talk Rainey Falls and Blossom Bar: Both class V rapids...

1976 - Me and da Mama (facing up river) waiting at Rainey falls for Papa and the Pontoon boat to come through



Papa and Capt. Bob coming through Rainey



Late '70s Papa and Jr approaching Blossom Bar



Papa and Jr going over Blossom backwards - obviously not intentional (notice the drift boat stuck on the rock)



Some of the greatest memories of my youth... Oh yeah! Zane Gray had a cabin on the Rogue River, now owned by BLM. I cannot find the photos, but while everyone else was up looking at it, I was staring down a black bear across the river.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/terryrichard/2008/05/large_ZaneGreyCabin.JPG

Oh Tani that looks like so much fun! As I said it's still my favorite river. And I have lots of rivers I'm fond of that I've either just visited or actually lived with. The Seine, the Columbia, the Willamette, the Deschutes, the Umpqua, and let's not forget the Nile (Herodotus: "Egypt is the gift of the Nile.") - I love rivers!

Anna, the Rogue is fantastic fun! My favorites are all that you mentioned above, however, have never been to France, so cannot really claim that one or the Nile.

Did a ton of floats down the Clackamas as a teenager and in my early 20s. I was jonesing following the Umpqua on Saturday and again on Monday following the Willamette up to the pass. *sigh*

Proxy Falls in the Three Sisters Wilderness (about an hour and a half from home) this one is not mine, but a favorite

> 222 I have never read anything by {Henry Petroski} that was bad so I suspect that Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America would be a fine start.

Sounds like what I was looking for, Paul. Thanks. I'll buy it.

256 tc53591..... Lovely waterfall. Do you know why they are called the 'Proxy Falls'?

No, I do not know, Thrin... that is a very good question. I have been trying to find something and to no avail. Be assured it is now on my brain and I WILL find out. ;-)

I don't know how summer weather can be better. Clear, cool, and dry. It makes me feel guilty after looking at John Wathan's pictures from the Gulf of Mexico. 100's of dead or dying dolphins. Who knows how many dead sperm whales. Fucking oil everywhere! Heading for the marshes and estuaries. obama's at a townhall scoring points off nitwit republicans. When his advisors are not much better than the Boehner's of the republick. But never mind obama. We must put all of our efforts in the saving of the Gulf if this is possible at this point. I don't know if obama, did we put him aside, has the backbone to stand up to BP - his major supporters. They've given o more money than any politician, what a dirty word, we have - or rather don't have. WE ARE SCREWED. Where there is no vision the people perish. The greenhorn obama, did I really put him aside, is helpless to get us out of this mess. BP is killing the Gulf and all the life therein; who do we look to to find a solution for this dire matter.

That's really horrible, Porius. We have off-shore rigs here in Australia too. It seems incredible that companies can turn these things 'on' without anyone knowing how to turn them 'off'.

Sorry guys, the river traveler had to REALLY work today, and I am too exhausted to think. I do want to say Gene--stories, please. Sounds like a great gig. Tani, marvelous photos. I cannot imagine being in a boat through those rapids. I did just a little bit of that at Iguacu Falls when I was more than ten years younger, and it scared me to death! Anna--rivers are marvelous. I have been blessed to see the Seine and the Nile and will jump on your bandwagon. Peter, what can we do? The sight of those animals is too depressing. On one of our trips through areas in southwest Florida we had dolphins cavorting alongside the boat as we motored along--a most memorable and heart-lifting event. I don't suppose it would serve any purpose to dunk all of the oil company execs and the politicians in some of the slime?

I will get back on the river tomorrow.

It's not something I like to think about it, but I have: that the logic of bad karma is clear. As the energy sources we habitually use, and upon which our way of life now depends, becomes increasingly scarce, the banality of wanting to be comfortable, and the money-making aspects of greed (those who amorally profit from whatever opportunity is at hand), will produce a sordid present of these catastrophes. This is our reality. And as with people of lesser intelligence, who only act when crises occur, the only recourse those who are genuinely alarmed have--and it's hardly a recourse, but what can we do?--is to scream and shout and not go gently into the horrific night.

The maggottie politicians took lucre, filthy lucre from BP to look the other way as they went about their evil deeds. Doing shoddy work, even as the catastrophe roils on. Papering over their mendacity with smiling faces and hollow promises. You can see the face of all this night-mare in the shallow & guilty smile of our treasury secretary. A man dedicated to PELF through and through.

Por-Man... tell us how you Really feel... don't hold back. ♥

The sight of those dolphins was enough to make me ill. I just don't think we away from all the carnage are feeling it enough. You know me tc I don't hold back nothing, as Sparky Anderson would say. If I wasn't so old and infirm I'd go down there with my boots and my shovel. But my arthritic knees and shoulder doesn't allow me to muck in as I should.

Sorry, love... not making light of situation. I am speechless. You put it better than I could ever dream of.

I think we all feel a sense of helpless rage. I can't look at photos of it any more.

Ah, jeez... I just found the video you were talking about, Peter. Helpless Rage... well put, Rena.

> 269 Neither do I. It is such a shame.

re#249 (Macumbeira)

Also isn't there a saying "thou shalt earn thy food by the work of your hands". My father used repeat that to me ad nauseam when I was trying to dodge farm work (in favor of reading books).

>153 highdesertlady: (tc53591}

I practice whitewater rafting on the river of life :)

Anybody read Bill Bryson. His travel and trekking the Appalachians are hilarious. He is a true lover of nature.

Also Pete McCarthy if you love Ireland. Although one of his books takes him all around the world to reach Alaska. Too bad he died so young of cancer.

#232 (EnriqueFreeque)

The kids are enjoying nature in it's most sensuous state. Oh, to be a kid again.

A quote from Sparknotes re Swann's Way. I love that book.

"Marcel is awestruck by the overpowering beauty of the landscape around Combray, especially the hawthorn blossoms that line the path to Swann's house. He loves to fall asleep in the shade of these blossoms and then walk around the outskirts of Combray, where he can admire the town church. Watching the sun reflect off the roof tiles of the church steeple, Marcel decides to become a writer and describes what he sees to the best of his ability".

Average Annual Rainfall

For naturalists and self-confessed lurkers, except, I believe, Mr. Durick aka Robert, whose state I omitted, to show him what he's missing out on if he remains incognito. I included the state of Washington, since the difference between it and Or-e-gun was so startling. (Some other surprises here too, such as Arkansas.) If your state or country is not listed, lurkers, come forth and announce yourself and I'll add it.

Arkansas 49.2 inches
California 17.3
(L.A. coastal area: 16.9)
Colorado 15.3
Connecticut 44.4
Florida 49.9
Georgia 48.6
Illinois 33.3
Louisiana 59.8
Michigan 32.2
New Jersey 41.9
New York 39.3
Ohio 37.8
Oregon 37.4
Texas 34.7
Washington 27.7

Abroad:

Belgium 30.9 inches
England (London) 23.0
Sydney, Australia, region 55.3
Taiwan 112.3 (!)

Murr, 112.3??? I thought cats hated to get wet.

Ah, jeez... Wilson! Now, Everyone will know we don't get as much rain as they say we do! We've been trying to keep Californians out for decades (no offense to the fearless leader, here). ;-) And quite frankly, they have amassed here in Central Oregon anyway. Ces't la vie.

Our onetime Governor, Tom McCall, actually went on national television in 1971 and said "Visit, but don't stay."

http://www.oregonlive.com/century/1970_intro.html

So it doesn't rain so much in Washington and Oregon as much as it mists? I have always been under the impression that it rains nearly non-stop in those states. Here in Georgia when it rains it don't mess around. It does it with lots of sturm und drang and moves on. We ain't seen no rain now in two weeks. We're getting thirsty.

For Wilson, er Piero, and our South American Correspondent:

Bay in Chile

I have a name change to announce.

Huh?

One of our sporadic naturalists has apparently gotten fed up with his previous nom de plume. He also changed the primary picture on his profile page, which is now a nature scene that looks like a typical Catskill Mountain trail, but I don't think it is since he's a Texan. Check it out, as they say in the Bronx:

http://www.librarything.com/profile/rickybutler

Actually, he's in the Olympic National Forest. Good show, Ricky!

> 277 Where is all that rain while I am pumping water onto the garden? (Grin) In truth I know were it is, some people call it winter. In Alabama (56.9), Mississippi (52.82), Louisiana (59.74), Georgia (58.6) and Florida (49.9) we might as well give up and call it "The Wet". It seems to get a bit worse every year.

For those who want to discuss the polluted state of affairs exempified by the oil spill and the response to it, or lack of it--and other environmental issues--there's a new salon thread, already under way:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/94030

Which of course does not preclude also discussing such things here, if that's your inclination.

A hiatus, it seems, concerning watery things. And since we don't want to be monomanical in any case, here's a poem by the current poet laureate of these not so united states:

Identity

When Hans Hofmann became a hedgehog
somewhere in a Germany that has
vanished with its forests and hedgerows
Shakespeare would have been a young actor
starting out in a country that was
only a word to Hans who had learned
from those who had painted animals
only from hearing tales about them
without ever setting eyes on them
or from corpses with the lingering
light mute and deathly still forever
held fast in the fur or the feathers
hanging or lying on a table
and he had learned from others who had
arranged the corpses of animals
as though they were still alive in full
flight or on their way but this hedgehog
was there in the same life as his own
looking around at him with his brush
of camel hair and his stretched parchment
of sheepskin as he turned to each sharp
particular quill and every black
whisker on the long live snout and those
flat clawed feet made only for trundling
and for feeling along the dark undersides
of stones and as Hans took them in he
turned into the Hans that we would see

W. S. Merwin

I enjoyed Hans' story but I'm not so certain as to what made the effort a poem. It doesn't follow Coleridge's dictum: 'best words in their best order. I can't nose out any traditional poetic form. As an old geezer I like to see form. A sonnet, a villanelle, a spondee here or there, and maybe even a caesura - a female caesura, maybe asking for too much. I think Yeats lays it out very well, here's just one example:

V
Irish poets learn your trade,
Sing whatever is well made,
Scorn the sort now growing up
All out of shape from toe to top,
Their unremembering hearts and hands
Base-born products of base beds.
Sing the peasantry, and then
Hard-riding country gentlemen,
The holiness of monks, and after
Porter-drinkers' randy laughter;
Sing the lords and ladies gay
That were beaten into clay
Through seven heroic centuries;
Cast your mind on other days
That we in coming days may be
Still the indomitable Irishry.
VI
Under bare Ben Bulben's head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeat's is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:

Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!
1939

The Poem, UNDER BEN BULBEN, the finish (V & VI),
from LAST POEMS (1936 - 1939)

Hans Hoffman figures in "Digging Deeper," and so ...
A fine critic of poetry, I admit I am not,
which also figures in "Digging Deeper,"
but I do know how to prime a pump, don't I?

Yes sah. Looking forward to it.

Continuing down the Illinois River . . . .

I might have mentioned that the Illinois trip is 331 miles. The first day out of Chicago is long and short! We try to run from sunup to about a half hour before sunset. The half hour or so is to allow getting tied up or anchor set before it is dark. Sometimes, we can only make it to Joliet, just below Lockport which is only about 45 miles. If the locks aren't backed up and we have not hit too much barge traffic, we might make it to an anchorage at mile 272--about 60 miles or to a dock at mile 251--80 miles. Traveling on the river is all about looking ahead and stopping before it gets dark. Some of the darkest nights of my life have been spent on a river!

The trip on the Illinois River takes about 4 days. Most nights are at anchor. We are a bunch of spoiled brats, since we have generators that give us power and all of the comforts of home. But there is nothing like "dropping the hook" out of the channel on a clear night. We were talking about the Milky Way earlier--the rivers travel through some remote areas with little light pollution. It is magnificent.

The anchorages are at places like "Twin Sisters" islands and "Quiver Island". The quality of the anchorage depends on the water level. In low water, some just disappear. In high water, sometimes the current will be too fast and you can't get the anchor to set right. We have notes on our charts like:
bottom of Lower Twin Sisters 10-5-2007; river a little low; very good spot 2-3 feet going in middle That trip there were three of us and we "rafted" the boats every night. Here is a not so great picture of the three boats at the spot described above:



Anyway, on the fourth day of this trip, my husband was quite intent on getting to his favorite place on the river: Mel's Illinois Riverdock Restaurant at mile 21. (21 miles to the Mississippi River) It had been a slow day. At the last lock, there was about a two hour wait--one of those anchor, raft off and get the cards out waits. Some of us thought we should skip Mel's. But the call of the pie was too much, so as we got close we pushed the throttles up, ruined our "gas mileage" and made it to Mel's in time for him to tell the gal at the counter to put aside the last lemon meringue pie for him. Our friends just love to tell the story of how expensive that pie was.

The nice thing about Illinois Riverdock is that he also has a little dock out back of the restaurant, so we could stay tied up for the night after stuffing ourselves on the brisket and the pie.

The last 21 miles of the Illinois River go pretty quick, and then it is a whole new ball game traveling down the Mississippi River.

Re rainfall, notice how much more rain Sydney has than London? It's timely, cos a British friend told me this fact the other day, and I went, as Weissy did, Huh?! How can this be?

Turns out, according to my British friend, we in Sydney get in 5 minutes the equivalent of a week of London drizzle. So we enjoy long stretches of sunshine, and then get a large chunk of our yearly rainfall over and done with in about ten fierce minutes.

Maybe it's the same only more so in Taiwan?

And Porius, #287, I get so distracted by all that meter and rhyme that I lose hold of the meanings. I still like Yeats, but prefer Auden on Yeats.

I

He disappeared in the dead of winter:
The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,
The snow disfigured the public statues;
The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.
What instruments we have agree
The day of his death was a dark cold day.

Far from his illness
The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests,
The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays;
By mourning tongues
The death of the poet was kept from his poems.

But for him it was his last afternoon as himself,
An afternoon of nurses and rumours;
The provinces of his body revolted,
The squares of his mind were empty,
Silence invaded the suburbs,
The current of his feeling failed; he became his admirers.

Now he is scattered among a hundred cities
And wholly given over to unfamiliar affections,
To find his happiness in another kind of wood
And be punished under a foreign code of conscience.
The words of a dead man
Are modified in the guts of the living.

But in the importance and noise of to-morrow
When the brokers are roaring like beasts on the floor of the Bourse,
And the poor have the sufferings to which they are fairly accustomed,
And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom,
A few thousand will think of this day
As one thinks of a day when one did something slightly unusual.
What instruments we have agree
The day of his death was a dark cold day.

(that's not all of it, as most salonistas will proably know. I can post the rest if interest requires)

Excellent choice choc for one so young. Have you heard Auden reading his poetry on CD? When possible I like to listen to how a poet reads his or the works of others. That's my way with works of literature, I prefer it spoken. Good readers read with an inner ear. They know what all the elements & voters in a work, sound like. An example: Autolykus in Shakespeare's A WINTER'S TALE is a great mimic. The reader must pay close attention to hear all the different voices. Or all the different voices in James Joyce's ULYSSES. We can't expect to get much out of it if as we read we hear the voice of a gate attendant at the Davis/Bessie near Port Clinton, Ohio. In that case it falls as flat as the landforms PW prefers to avoid.

Thanks :) I didn't know you could get Auden reading his own poems! I'd love that!

That poem's had a hold on me since I discovered it as an undergrad a few years ago. I love it. That deserted city of his mind... makes me shiver.

Weissy? Are you trying to piss me off?

Yep.

But you did say, evidence on my profile, and I quote, "Go head and call me what you like. I'll adapt."

♥

>290 LisaCurcio:. Good stuff, Lisa. Are you gonna take us down the Mississippi tomorrow?

Piero, all in fun. Sorry. Won't do it again.

Don't go getting squirrelly on me, Sheila. I've been called worse.

"squirrelly": I had to look it up. According to yourdictionary.com, it means "Cunningly unforthcoming or reticent".

I think in fact I was being the opposite.

The source of all wisdom (The Urban Dictionary) defines squirrelly as "bizarre characteristics that cannot be explained"

Rena, I think the definition in The Urban Dictionary is what Peter had in mind :-).

Later today, yes, the Mississippi. Just a few more words about the Illinois River leading up to the next topic. Besides being a conduit of commerce, there are many towns and small cities along the river that enjoy the riverfront for recreational purposes. Peoria, Illinois, has developed the area with transient docks, shops and restaurants. There is a lovely yacht club just north of the city where there are all manner of motor boats. (Too shallow for most sailboats) There are small sailboats on the water near Peoria, however, because the river widens into a pretty good sized lake with some water deep enough for sailing.

People use the river for fishing, skiing and just riding up and down. Outside of the cities and towns, farmers use it for irrigation or watering animals. Then there are miles and miles of sloughs filled with wildlife. Lots of herons and egrets routinely visible. Sometimes one catches site of a bald eagle. I have never been able to get a photo, unfortunately.

The water flow is generally fairly slow--the current runs at about a mile per hour. Even in the spring when the water is very high it might only get up to about 2 miles per hour. For the most part, the river is less than a half mile wide. It twists and turns a lot. The "channel" is marked with red buoys on the left as you go down and green on the right. Of course, as you go up, that is reversed . As in most things nautical, things stay in the same place--the boat changes orientation. Another example--the banks of the river are the right descending bank and the left descending bank. When going up river, it does not change to right ascending and left ascending.

More later.

On the road, we see the front of things: how the world presents itself to outsiders. Your description, Lisa, reminded me of the giddy wonderment I felt the few times I cruised through fields and backyards. It's just another point of view, but it appeared more real. like seeing into the actual lives of people.

Taiwan does have high rainfall. Most of it comes during May and June, with the Plum Rains, which last for about 6 weeks. We then have a typhoon season which lasts from July to September. One typhoon can deliver probably 1/5 of the annual rainfall. They are ferocious.

Speaking of water, weatherwise: people in the Northeast will be sweating it, drinking it, and jumping into it this long weekend and into next week when we get our first truly brutal heat wave: five days in the nineties, with New York City likely to hit 100 degrees on Monday.

On the upcoming thread switch: my slower computer has been laboring, what with all the recent pix. No doubt some of you are experiencing it too. On Saturday or Sunday we'll go to Nature Ubiquitous II (I do like that title). Stay tuned.

For Wilson...

Waves

This "Wilson" monicker should be explained, for those of you not as nerdish as Tani, or as me for that matter: I entered a second photo on my profile page, in which my face is hidden a la the Wilson character on the television show Home Improvement.

We are a bit overcast this morning on the high desert. Had a brief rain shower overnight, thank gawd, to wash away the pine pollen that is extremely heavy and late this year. High will only be upper 60s to maybe 70 today and we will be increasing our temps leading up to high 80s mid-week next. Am praying that the idiot weekend warriors don't shoot off any fireworks over the lakes and reservoirs near my home. We'll see. Which reminds me... must get the evacuation boxes ready for the season. Ugh.

Love the poetry, everyone!

It took him a few minutes to get it, but he got it. So I guess that makes me the bigger nerd. ;-)

308: It was POURING this morning in PDX. I am really quite bummed. It is JULY. Those rain stats up above may be averages, but this year I believe it will be quite different. Our rainfall average for June is .5 inches, this year it was 4 and something. A record that beat all records.

Tani, I will have to check out Pietro's profile again. Lovely picture--where is it?

I have been so focused on my river travels that I have forgotten to tell you that we have had three glorious weather days in a row in Chicago. Temps in the 70s, not a cloud in sight, little wind and low humidity. Today is supposed to be warmer, but other qualities the same. Tomorrow and Sunday, however, summer seems to be arriving with upper 80s/low 90s, humidity and southwest winds.

BTW, thanks, all, for putting up with me. Telling you about my trips is bringing back fond memories and the desire to do it again soon.

311: I am loving your barge journey. Did you ever read this book about the Columbia called A River Lost? He went on a barge trip and described it in great detail as well.

Wilson (once you see the pic you will understand my new moniker for him) did not tell me where the waves were...

What say you?

Anna, I so empathize with the rain, especially over the 4th. Typically, PDX will have rain the 1st week of June (during our Rose Festival) and over the 4th of July nearly every year. It is quite irritating on those special outdoor weeks. Which explains some of why I moved up here.

You really should come over the hill for a spell, Anna.

Looks like we fell off the top today. But, we did hold it for 4 fabulous water filled days!

I know this is not the music thread, but thought it apropos for Water Appreciation week and our upcoming river tale from Lisa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqZ95a249p0

The waves are in an inlet off the coast of Maine. If you look carefully at the photo, you'll see a little red thing, looks like a ball, and on the left-hand side four other, different colored apparent balls. They're buoys for lobster traps. The different colors--and designs, when you see them close up--indicate whose traps they are. The missus, btw, our South American correspondent, takes all the pix.

Bravo, to our South American Correspondent! (and looks like we are back on top!) ;-)

Doobie Brothers--WooHoo! Nice break and it was all I could do to restrain myself from clapping and singing along.

Lobster traps! The bane of a pleasure boater's existence. They are all over along the Florida Gulf Coast--I know they don't have lobsters, but they have lobster traps--and when cruising there it is a full time job to watch for the things because you DON'T want to wrap the line or chain around your propeller and shaft.

Anna, glad you are enjoying it, and thanks for the book rec. I have put that one on the wishlist. I never have, however, traveled on a barge. We take our "pleasure craft" up and down from time to time. I am trying to avoid barges.

A book recommendation that I made on another thread but that is apropos now: Old Glory: A Voyage Down the Mississippi by British author Jonathan Raban. He rented a really small boat and took it down the river from Minnesota to New Orleans. Part of the trip on the Lower Mississippi was by barge. They put his little boat on the barge and he got to ride along. The trip was at the end of the 1970s, but the story of the trip is still current. So, there is another book discussion on the nature thread.

Books you want? Books you'll get. Well, actually, a book, translated from French, one with a boat and the most lucid writing you'll find anywhere (though not easy to get ahold of):

Adventures of a Red Sea Smuggler by Henry de Monfreid, introduction by Colin Wilson. Also published under the title Hashish.

indeed a good book and a fascinating writer

#293 Porius? What were you doing at the Davis Besse Nuclear Power Plant just west of Port ClintonOH? Were you on some kind of tour? I think some of my husband's nephews are still working as guards there. There was such a big fuss when they had the hearings on whether or not it should be built. This was sometime in the 1970's. The library had just bought a new copy machine & all the Davis Besse Activists keept using it & using it & soon it broke down. It was our first casuality of the Nuclear Age. NO, they didn't help pay for a new one. But we upped the charge a nickel more. Now all the DB records are stored at the Univ. of Toledo.
BTW, the busiest Saturday the library ever had was the one after the 3 Mile Island episode. DB people scurring through all the files, opened & unopened to make sure they hadn't missed anything. Turned out DB is the same model as 3 Mile island.
But we are still here, all of us.

#259 - Thrin, this is the response I received from the Willamette National Forest Mckenzie River Ranger District:

From what I can gather, the naming of Proxy falls is in reference to the creek which feeds it (Proxy Creek). The creek is a drainage from Proxy Point located north of Substitute Point by "USGS surveyors during the time when the (official geographic locator) triangulation net was being extended along the Cascades Range. This point and Substitute Point were both selected for possible stations, where but one was to be occupied (which turned out to be Substitution Point) (McArthur, 1982: 607-608)."

I have not been able to find the information to say why the point was originally named Proxy.

It's not very interesting, but there it is.

#287 (porius)

The last lines of this Yeats poem are also his epithet. I saw it on his headstone in Ireland.

Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!

Unless Lisa has more to say (though she can of course talk about water on this thread or ensuing ones as much as she likes), and Gene doesn't come forth with a mule-driven canal story, it would seem that Water Appreciation Week is about over. As Henri put it in a message to me: " ... water literally poured out of my monitor." For those who don't follow the LT popularity contest that charts who's lurking and participating on certain threads, this thread has been number one since Sunday, and only today dropped down to number two.

How do you look at which threads are #1?

click on Hot Topics in Talk.

In the upper left hand corner of this thread, click on Hot Topics. To arrange in numerical order, sometimes you have to click it a second time. Right now, for instance, Nature Ubiquitous is number one again, and your garbage-inspired thread, Anna, is number four.

321 tc.... Thanks for going to the trouble about Proxy Falls. You suggest it's not very interesting, but it's just the sort of thing that I find fascinating. I enjoy puzzles.... and words. Thanks.

MarianV > One of my friends had a grandmother who lived there. One summer, many years ago now, a couple of us painted her farmhouse. We stayed 3 or 4 days and got to know the place as much as one can know a place staying there not quite a week. We'd 'go up to town' for lunch. The fare was Ohio fare at its finest, maybe not up to the standards of Graham Kerr, but you'd get a lot of it. Ohio has always been a little spooky for me. I love it but there's something about the 'Buckeyes' I don't quite understand. I was down in Columbus a couple times for a UM/OSU football game. It seemed more primal than Ann Arbor. But I have much admiration for Woodrow Wilson Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and Robert Montgomery Knight. I love Katey Smith too, she played for the SHock for a spell. One of my favorite basketball players, men or women. One of my best friends from college is from Akron or thereabouts, she's a stalwart who'd give you the shirt off her back in a pinch. Oh well you asked me.

#327 Thrin... You're welcome. I am either OCD (good possibility) or should have been a detective. I find that I Must find out the 5 W's or it will drive me nuts. ;-)

Wait! I still want to tell you about the Mississippi River. I have a few photos, too, and that ought to do it for this thread. I am trying to keep them small, but I know it really loads things up.

The Mississippi is a raging torrent compared to the Illinois. In some spring seasons, it is close to being really a raging torrent.

The Illinois River runs into the Mississippi at Upper Mississippi river mile 218. The Upper Mississippi starts at Minneapolis-St. Paul with mile 866. It ends at the Ohio River. From there, you are on the Lower Mississippi. I have only been a few miles down the Lower Mississippi and then it was because I missed the Ohio River. My husband still teases me about that!

At the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, the Mississippi is more than a mile wide. It is filled with islands and shallow areas, and it is crucial to follow the channel. It is a pretty wide channel!

When you make the left turn onto the Mississippi, there are only two locks for the entire 218 miles to the Ohio River. They come up in a relatively short distance, and then you are in St. Louis. St. Louis from the water is positively ugly. The only river front is a little park just below the arch. People in St. Louis do not boat on the Mississippi. It is a large port, however, and the commercial traffic is heavy. The entire area is a "no wake" zone because there are so many barges either tied up at shore and working or anchored in the river waiting for something.

There are only two places to pull up to a dock between the Illinois River and the Ohio. Any other stops are at anchor. The first is a fancy marina at Alton, Illinois. The second is "world famous" to river travelers, and is at once amazing and an incredible disappointment. That is "Hoppie's" at mile 158, just below Kimmswick, Missouri. No one really knows how old the current proprietors are. They know everything that is going on on the river. We all worry what will happen when they no longer can manage the place.They have fuel, a dock and a used car they let you use to get to town to pick up whatever you need. (Usually engine parts for us, but sometimes provisions.) The docks are used barges that are attached to a big winch. In low water, they lower them and the walk to shore is a long steep walk up a ramp. In high water they pull them up and it is just a short walk straight across. The car--no matter what it is--is fondly called the "Hoppiemobile".

Here is a picture of the dock in the spring of 2008. The water was at the highest level in recent history. We got stuck there for two days on our way up to Chicago because the Army Corps of Engineers closed the river to pleasure craft due to the high fast water.



Oops, gotta go right now. More later!

Edited to increase photo size per request

> 306 Damn, that is a fine photo. More books before the week ends.

Lila : An Inquiry into Morals by Robert Pirsig a Zen and the Art rerun set on a boat and The Secret Life of the Seine a delightful book by Mort Rosenblum

Photo fantastick. Very satisfying.

Such a night. Twilight is my favorite time of day. It doesn't last long but that adds to its delight. The last 3 days here in Mi. have been ideal weatherwise. It looks as though it will heat up over the weekend reaching into the nineties. Don't like that much

Sweet confusion under the moonlight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44jhNZjVvzY

Lisa: Don't worry about putting photos up; we'll be moving to new digs anyway, soon So, if you have more, we'll stick around until you post them. And if you don't, can you increase the size of the one in #330?

That photo in 330 was looking down the dock at Hoppies across and down the river. As I mentioned, the water was at the highest levels in a very long time. Normally the river is about half as wide as it was then. When we went down the river in October, 2007, the water was normal to a bit low. The current was running about 3.5 miles per hour. On the trip up in May, 2008 the current was between 5 and 6 miles per hour. At one place where the river narrows and there is a bridge at just about that spot the current was running about 8 miles per hour. Current is nice on the way down--the water pushes you along. It is quite nasty on the way up. We only run about 10 to 11 miles per hour. An 8 mile per hour current on the bow slows us down to 2 miles per hour!

One more picture at Hoppies. The cardinal posed for the picture; you can also see that the river is just about at the top of the bank.



Here is a photo of one of the buoys on the trip in May. The "wake" on the right side of the buoy is caused by the water rushing around it.



Here is a picture from our trip down. The same 52 foot boat you saw in the lock approaching a really big barge on the Mississippi River.



The trip down to the Ohio River was three and a half days. The trip up was five days because the current slowed us down so much. Anchoring on the way up was quite a challenge because most of the places we usually found 10 to 15 feet of water (good anchoring depth) were 30 and 40 feet deep. To get a good set on the anchor one needs at least 5 times the depth of the water in anchor line for calm water. With a current like we had, we really needed 10 times the depth, and we don't have 300 feet of anchor line!

I will just wrap this up, I think. At the Ohio River, at Cairo, Illinois, we turn left and travel about 60 miles to the area around Paducah, Kentucky. The mouth of the Ohio is a huge staging area for barges. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of them anchored together waiting to be picked up by a pusher. Navigating is interesting since sometimes it is hard to tell from a distance which ones are moving. We care because we need to know what a moving barge is doing so we can stay out of its way.

There are two locks for us on the Ohio. We need to make that trip in one day because the Ohio has almost no place to anchor. It is filled with sand bars and it is really hard to get out of the channel. At Paducah, we decide whether to take the Tennessee River or the Cumberland River. The Tennessee is quicker, but the Kentucky Lock is very busy with commercial traffic and we have waited four hours there. In those circumstances it is better to go on to the Cumberland--a small, beautiful river, but an extra 30 miles. My last photo is another friend in the Barkley Lock after which we pulled into our home for the winter and our trip in October, 2007 ended.

Normally the river is about half as wide as it was then.

I have trouble picturing this. I live near the Hudson, a formidable river, and see it wax and wane over the seasons, but it never comes close to half its widest width. Is it something about the nature of your river here, and other rivers you've been on that accounts for this: the landscape, feeder streams, effect of irrigation, etc.?

Well, let me see. I guess the best story of my C&O Canal barge days was the night we took out the Retired Admirals Association. During the day, we would run one tourist trip up to lock 5 and back with two of these daytime trips on Saturday and Sunday. At night the barge was rented out for private parties. We did Bar Mitzvahs and Bas Mitzvahs, birthday parties, groups, anyone with the price. Well, one night we took the Naval Retired Admirals Association up to lock 5 and back. This trip was during my time as Captain. I had spent time previously as a deck hand. As Captain I steered the boat with a large rudder which I man-handled. The rudder arm was set in a groove of the stern rail and I stood on a smallish deck that could accommodate about four people, tops.

So I'm standing on this deck, steering the boat against the mule tug and staying pretty much in the center of the canal when these two wizened elderly gentlemen came back to the rear deck, leaned against the aft rail and began talking, mostly about navy stuff. After a few minutes, one gentleman said to the other, "See how gentle the wake is in the moonlight?" The second gentleman nodded, studied the wake some more, took his pipe from his mouth and said, "Yup, reminds me of the first time I took the Forrestal out of Hampton Roads." I'm listening to all this thinking are you just reminiscing or trying to make me feel stupid. After that, they both returned to the party.

Great ! I don't think they wanted to make you feel stupid. Just old sailors remembering.
Never forget that river navigation is way more complicated than sea navigation. The risk of collission is constant !

>336 copyedit52: Peter, It was an unusual year. It wasn't twice as wide as normal everywhere, but in areas where the banks are not steep, it just spread out. I forgot something else about the Mississippi that makes it interesting--wing dams. There are man made piles of rock in rows on either side in the areas where the current would otherwise quickly erode the banks. Normally, they are partially submerged near the channel and it is another thing to watch for. Hitting one would cause serious damage to whatever part of the boat hit. On that May '08 trip, we didn't need to worry about hitting them--they were so far below that we were able to run right over them.

Mac is right about navigation on a river. It is not likely you will get lost, although it is easy to lose track of where you are if you don't pay attention. It does require constant vigilance to avoid hitting things.

I forgot to tell you about talking to the barge captains. There must be a school they go to to learn the drawl that takes some serious listening to understand. There is also the language of the river. After ten days of running on the river, I start to pick up a little drawl myself. Typical conversation when wanting to pass a barge:

Downbound pusher at about Baumstark Towhead, this is downbound pleasure craft "In Recess" comin' up on your stern. Okay to pass you, skipper?

You keep it comin, Cap'n and I'll see you on the two.

OR

Wal, we got the "Laura Sue" comin' up just ahead, so after she comes on by I'll see you on the two.

Anyone navigating the river needs to keep the VHF radio tuned to the channel on which the barges communicate. Those fellows always know where others in the area are and what is coming for the next couple of hours. They know where they expect to be a few hours later, and they find out who is coming their way by constantly talking to each other. They pass on any information they have about who might be behind them, too. Sometimes when the river is twisting a lot, or it gets narrow, one of them will lay up on the bank until the other can pass. They travel at about 6-7 miles per hour, usually. As I mentioned above, they can be 1,000 feet long and they don't bend in the middle. It is a work of art to see them maneuver from one side of the river to the other to make a bend. Not a good idea to be passing them while they are doing that!

When a skipper gives passing instructions referring to "The two" it means that the person to whom the instruction is being given passes on his starboard side. "The one" would be to pass on the port. Before radios, passing instructions or intentions were given by blowing the whistle one time or two.

Gene, I love it. I think Mac is right. Not likely they were doing anything other than reminiscing. Boaters, whether people like me or Admirals, love to tell stories.

Thanks, Lisa and Gene for the stories! Okay, I can never remember... which is port and which is starboard?

Port is the left side of the boat looking to the bow (front) and starboard is the right side.

One more picture. This is a typical Mississippi size pusher seen from our helm station. Can you see how low the gunwales are? They are only about two feet above the water, and if you throw a wake over the gunwales the water goes into their engine room and you will have one very unhappy barge captain.

I passed a professional degree for captain or skipper for river navigation. I had to do an examination on a simulator, navigating virtually from the North Sea up the Schelde River all the way to Antwerp. We were three "on deck" - one at the radar, one at the plotter and one at the paper map. We switched position every 10 minutes. The tension and the stress (dodging the intense traffic, currents, sand-bars, wind drift and occasional squall) was so bad that by the end of the exam I was soaking wet ( without any physical effort ).

Mac, I had no idea. I thought you were just a recreational sailor, like I am a recreational power boater. Wow! Having passed that, you can take on almost anything, I would think.

I never used that degree !

I passed the exam at a moment I did not know what to do with my life. Becoming a professional sailor was one option. But things turned out differently.

Living those years close to sea, I spend nearly every weekend on a sailing boat. Recreational as you say.

But passing those exams brought a lot of respect for all those hard working people.

July the Fourth, time for a new thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/94244